UKIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY.  LOS  ANGELES 


FLORENCE 


Panorama  of  Florence, 


^FLORENCE 

ITS  HISTORY— THE  MEDICI— THE  HUMANISTS 
LETTERS— ARTS 


r.v 


CHARLES  YRIARTE 


NEW    EDITION,    REVISED    AND    COMPARED    WITH    THE    LATEST 
AUTHORITIES    HY 

MARIA  HORNOR  LANSDALE 


ILLUSTRATED 


PHILADELPHIA 
HENRY   T.  COATES   &    CO. 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
HENRY  T.  COATES  ct  CO. 


ISJI 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction, 1 

CHArTER  I.     History, 11 

II.     The  Medici 27 

III.  The  Renaissance,        .....  121 

IV.  Illustrious  Florentines,  ....  139 
Y.     Etruscan  Art, 266 

VI.    Christian  Art, 280 

VII.    Architecture 285 

VIII.    Sculpture, 348 

IX.    Painting, 417 


-4 

1=="  1539737  ^^^ 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Photogravures  by  W.  H.  Gilbo,  New  York 

PAGE 

Panorama  of  Florence, Frontispiece 

Portrait  of  Dante  from  the  Fresco  in  the  Bar- 

GELLo,   Giotto, 20 

Portrait  of   one   of  the    Medici   in   the   Kiccardi 

ChapeIv,  Benozzo  GozzoU, 48 

The  Duomo,    Cathedral   of    S.    Maria    del    Fiore, 

Scene  of  the  Pazzi  Conspiracy,  ....  60 
Staircase   in  the  Courtyard   of  the  Bargello   or 

Palazzo  del  Podesta, 70 

Portrait  of  Bianca  Cappello,  Bronzino,       .        .         .91 

Galileo's  Tower, 108 

House  of  Dante, 142 

The  Great  Cloister,  Church  of  S.  Maria  Novella, 

Fra  Giovanni  da  Carpi,           ......  152 

Pitti  Palace, 178 

Cloisters  of  S.  Croce,  and  Pazzi  Chapel,  BruncUcschi,  198 

The  So-called  ''Bella  Simonetta,"  Sandra  Botticelli,  .  214 

Cloister  of  Monastery  of  S.  ^NFarco,  ....  226 

Fra  Girolamo  Savonarola, 234 

Galileo  (School  of  Sustermans),         ....  260 

Dancing  Boys,  Donatdlo, 274 

Basilica  of  S.  Miniato, 286 

(  vii  ) 


viii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Palazzo  Yecchio,  Amolfo  di  Cambio,        ....  298 

PoNTE  Vecchio, 310 

Cloisters  of  S.  Croce,  Arnolfo  di  Cambio,        .         .        .  320 

Loggia  dei  Lanzi, 340 

La  Madonna  del  Sacco,  Cloister  of  the  SS.  Annun- 

ziATA,  Andrea  del  Sarto, 346 

Tabernacle  in  Or  San  Michele,  Andrea  Orcagna,      .  354 

Dancing  and  Singing  Boys,  Luca  della  Bobbia,       .        .  376 

YiTTORiA  CoLONNA,  3Tuziano, 390 

Perseus,  Benvenuto  Cellini, 404 

Maddalena  Doni,  Baphael, 418 

Coronation  of  the  Virgin  in  Church  of  S.  Croce, 

Giotto, 426 

Madonna  and  Child,  Filippo  Lippi,  ....  438 
Peter  Martyr  in    the  Convent  of    S.    Marco,  Fra 

Angelico, 445 


FLORENCE. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Italy  in  the  thirteenth  century  carried  on  and 
brought  to  its  cro^wTiing  point  the  work  of  civiUzation 
which  France  in  the  twelfth  century  had  started  by 
means  of  the  crusades,  the  estabUshment  of  commimal 
franchises,  and  the  foundation  of  the  Uniyersity  of 
Paris.  The  symbol  created  by  the  genius  of  Lucre- 
tius, where  the  successiye  labor  of  generations  is  rep- 
resented by  running-men  passing  their  torches  from 
hand  to  hand,  had  neyer  been  realized  with  so  much 
grandeur ;  the  sacred  torches  had  fallen  from  French 
hands,  and  had  been  picked  up  by  Italy,  in  whose 
grasp  they  emitted  a  light  Avhich  dazzled  the  whole 
world. 

Rome,  notwithstanding  the  Barbarian  inyasion,  tlie 
schism,  and  the  exile  of  the  Papacy,  still  retained  the 
recollection  of  her  glorious  past,  brought  eyen  more 
yiyidly  before  her  by  the  superb  monuments  which 
had  withstood  the  ravages  of  time  and  of  man.  But 
eyen  Rome,  like  the  rest  of  Italy,  acknowledged  the 
superiority  of  Florence  comparable  to  Athens  itself, 
and  all  the  cities  of  Italy  di<l  homage  to  her  genius, 
'l  (1) 


2  FLORENCR 

for  she,  together  with  Siena,  had  been  the  first  to 
make  the  onward  move.  In  the  course  of  a  century, 
from  Dante  and  Giotto  to  the  first  of  the  Medici, 
from  the  two  Pisani  to  Brunelleschi,  Donatello,  and 
Alberti,  Florence  reached  the  summit  of  human 
thought  and  the  zenith  of  phistic  beauty.  "While  at 
the  yery  moment  Avhen  it  seemed  as  if  she  must 
exhausted  by  the  efiforts  which  residted  in  the 
birth  of  the  Renaissance,  she  was  about  to  produce 
the  two  human  beings,  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Michael 
Angelo,  who  in  the  domain  of  Art  bring  most  nearly 
home  to  us  the  diyine  origin  of  our  poor  humanity. 
AYe  must  go  back  to  Greek  Art  and  to  the  age  of 
Pericles  for  another  such  epoch  in  the  world's  history  •, 
and  to  form  some  idea  of  the  reyolution  which  was 
then  brought  about,  we  must  reyert  to  the  adyent  of 
Christianity,  which  founded  modern  society  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  old  world. 

It  wiU  be  my  endeayor  to  trace,  as  I  proceed,  the 
causes,  direct  and  indirect,  of  this  miquestioned  supe- 
riority of  Florence  oyer  the  other  cities  of  the  Penin- 
sida.  To  the  sum  of  human  knowledge  which  con- 
stitutes the  trading  capital  of  humanity,  Florence 
contributed  the  largest  share,  and  she  further  and 
aboye  all  possessed  that  gift  and  priyilege  of  plastic 
beauty,  just  as  some  of  God's  creatures  haye  the 
priyilege  of  gracefulness.  There  was  a  period  in  her 
history  when  everything  that  her  artists  touched 
turned  to  gold.     Their  works  were  instinct  with  the 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

profound  faith  that  inspired  them,  and  tlieir  consum- 
mate strength  and  skill  were  masked  by  the  gracefid- 
ness  of  their  finish.  Even  to  this  day  the  marbles, 
frescoes,  and  manuscripts  produced  during  this  bril- 
liant epoch  in  Florence,  or  by  Florentines,  retain  a 
rare  and  unicpic  individuality,  an  undefinable  some- 
thing made  up  of  nobility,  grandeur,  calm  strength, 
and  sober  elegance.  Our  eyes  are  attracted  at  a 
street  corner,  under  a  porch,  in  a  gallery,  or  on  the 
walls  of  a  convent,  as  the  case  may  be,  by  some  ob- 
ject which  stands  out  in  such  relief  that  the  surround- 
ing objects  are,  so  to  speak,  obliterated.  This  is 
because  the  soul  of  Florence  has  passed  into  the  in- 
spired work  :  we  recognize  the  sign  by  which  all  the 
works  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  Italy  are  marked, 
as  we  breathe  the  soft  and  subtle  perfume  which  they 
exhale. 

This  superiority  of  Florentine  Art  has  been  every- 
where felt,  and  all  Italy  was  subject  to  its  peaceful 
yoke  as  we  are  to-day.  From  Papal  Rome,  where 
the  illustrious  pontiffs  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  gathered  about  them  the  artists  of  Florence 
and  the  humanists  of  Tuscany,  to  the  condottieri  who 
wore  the  purple  at  Milan,  Urbino,  Ferrara,  Mantua, 
Rimini,  and  Bologna,  all  the  rulers  of  Italy  sought  to 
assemble  a  court  composed  in  the  main  of  illustrious 
Florentines.  If  they  wanted  to  erect  a  cathedral  or 
church,  to  cast  an  equestrian  statue  of  some  famous 
soldier,  to  Avrite  the  history  of  some  great  city,  or  to 


4  FLOKEXCE. 

train  tlie  heir  to  a  principality^  it  was  to  Florence 
that  they  turned  their  attention.  Florence  was  the 
focus,  the  school,  and  the  laboratory  of  human  genius, 
and  though  there  were  other  centres  of  intelligence — 
each  northern  tOAvn  being  in  the  fifteenth  century  a 
miniature  Athens — Florence  predominated  over  them 
all. 

There  are  three  distinct  periods  in  the  history  of 
Florence.  From  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  to 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  she  was  struggling 
for  existence,  and  torn  by  the  conflicting  passions  of 
her  OA\ai  citizens  divided  by  hereditary  feuds.  She 
attempted  to  establish  liberty,  but  only  succeeded  in 
paving  the  way  for  an  Athenian  form  of  tyranny 
which  had  genius  for  its  excuse  and  the  majority  of 
the  citizens  for  its  accomplices.  Yet  amid  these  in- 
cessant struggles  of  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  and  in 
spite  of  continual  disturbances,  the  work  of  elabora- 
tion was  ever  going  on,  and  has  been  a  cause  of  as- 
tonishment to  all  the  historians  of  that  period.  In 
France  the  English  invasion  and  intestine  strug- 
gles had  extinguished  civil  life,  and  had  put  back  the 
progress  of  humanity  ;  but  in  Tuscany  the  flower  of 
the  Renaissance  grew  and  bloomed  in  blood,  unfold- 
ing itself  in  all  its  beauty  at  the  dawn  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  This  was  the  second  and  most  brilliant  of 
the  three  periods  :  that  which  was  adorned  by  Cosimo, 
Father  of  his  Country,  and  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent j  by  savants,  such  as  Marciho  Ficino,  Politian, 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

Pico  della  ^lirandola,  Cristofero  Landino,  Baccio  Ugo- 
lini,  Kinuccini,  and  the  two  Acciajuoli ;  by  artists, 
like  Brimellesclii,  Michelozzo  Michelozzi,  Donatello, 
Leo  Battista  Alberti ;  and  by  men  of  political  genius, 
such  as  Leonardo  Bruni  Aretino,  Machiavelli,  and 
Carlo  Marsuppini. 

At  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Florence  (1530),  the 
splendor  of  this  period  was  at  its  apogee,  but  with 
the  exception  of  Galileo,  who  was  destined  to  dis- 
cover fresh  truths,  all  the  great  innovators  were  in 
their  graves.  Michael  Angelo  upon  his  bastion,  for- 
tifying Florence  and  defending  San  Miniato,  is  sym- 
bolic of  the  genius  of  Florence  struggling  for  inde- 
pendence and  freedom  against  Charles  V.  "When  the 
city  opened  her  gates  the  Republic  was  doomed,  and 
the  days  of  her  greatness  were  numbered  with  the  past. 

The  sixteenth  century  was  not  a  barren  one. 
Tumultuous,  full  of  life,  and  with  a  tendency  to  ex- 
tremes, it  was  more  turbulent  than  the  fifteenth  ;  and 
ever  eager  to  learn,  it  gave  birth  to  a  vast  number 
of  works,  devoid,  however,  of  the  ardent  faith,  the 
conscientiousness,  and  the  infinite  depth  which  marked 
the  preceding  era.  John  of  Bologna,  with  his  martial 
air,  Benvenuto  himself,  who  may  be  looked  upon  as  a 
condottiere  who  had  by  some  accident  found  his  way 
into  the  career  of  Art,  and  who,  for  all  his  fine  ways, 
was  an  artist  to  the  core,  with  all  the  qualities  and 
defects  of  his  age,  cannot  make  us  forget  the  gentle 
Desiderio,  the   tender  Mino,   and    Donatello,   about 


6  FLOREXCE. 

whose  -works  there  is  always  something  novel,  dis- 
tinctive, and  grandiose. 

Xo  one  will  feel  surprised  when  I  say  that  it  is  the 
second  period,  from  the  thirteenth  century  to  the  fall 
of  the  Republic,  which  has  been  the  subject  of  my  pre- 
dilection. It  seems  to  have  come  to  be  imderstood 
within  the  last  twenty  years  that,  with  the  exception 
of  two  or  three  great  figures  which  are  the  synthesis 
of  human  genius,  and  which  shed  their  lustre  over 
the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  Italy, 
humanity  disclosed  nearly  all  its  secrets  from  the  time 
of  Dante  to  the  death  of  Michael  Angelo  and  of  Leo- 
nardo da  Vinci.  While  if  contemporary  chroniclers 
have  exhausted  all  that  there  is  to  say  concerning  the 
great  literary  and  philosophical  characters,  the  history 
of  Art  is  only  just  dawning.  Benozzo  Gozzoli,  Lippi, 
Memmi,  Pollaiolo,  Piero  della  Francesca,  Botticelli, 
Baccio  Baldini,  Pisanello,  Finiguerra,  Benedetto  da 
Maiano,  Michelozzo,  Desiderio,  and  their  contempo- 
raries have  been  but  little  kno^\T^i  in  modern  times, 
and  their  works  not  familiar  even  in  their  native 
places. 

The  period  which  begins  with  the  first  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  Cosimo  I.,  and  finishes  with  John  Gaston, 
Avas  not  devoid  of  glory  for  Florence.  If  the  indi- 
viduals are  less  famous,  and  if  a  sovereign  like 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  is  replaced  by  one  plunged 
in  crime  like  Cosimo,  there  was  an  impetus  acquired, 
a  traditional   greatness,   a  flow   of  sap  which    con- 


INTRODUCTIOX.  7 

tinned  to  produce  flowers  and  fruit.  Tlie  last 
prince  of  this  race  had  a  glimmer  of  intellectual 
genius,  a  desire  to  learn,  a  spark  of  sacred  fire,  and  a 
certain  sense  of  what  was  due  to  posterity  which  in- 
duced him  to  bequeath  to  his  country  Art  treasures 
testifying  clearly  to  his  magnificence,  his  judgment, 
and  his  taste.  Now  and  again,  even  during  its  de- 
cline, may  be  seen  some  sudden  flicker  of  the  Flor- 
entine genius  about  to  be  extinguished ;  and  the  period 
of  the  decadence  of  Florence  with  the  Academy  of 
the  Cimento  would  pass  muster  for  the  Renaissance 
of  some  benighted  peoples. 

The  genius  of  Florence  was  incarnate  in  the  ^ledici; 
it  has  therefore  been  necessary  to  write  the  history 
of  these  merchant  princes,  who  had  the  honor  of 
twice  giving  their  name  to  the  century  in  which  they 
lived :  with  Cosimo  and  Lorenzo  at  Florence,  and 
with  Leo  X.  at  Rome.  After  having  related  the  his- 
tory of  the  Medici,  I  have  sketched  the  movement 
known  as  the  Renaissance,  endeavoring  to  explain 
why  Italy  was  the  country  of  its  birth,  and  have  com- 
prised in  this  essay  biographies,  summary  in  their 
character  but  derived  from  the  most  trustworthy 
sources,  of  the  leading  personages  in  philosophy  and 
literature. 

The  principal  monuments  of  Florence  give  us  an 
insight  into  her  civil  life,  for  at  that  period  the  char- 
acters of  men  were  reflected  with  great  distinctness 
in  their  works.     In  this  remarkable  city,  where  were 


8  FLORENCE. 

born  all  tlie  great  ideas  upon  wliicli  are  based  the 
glory,  the  prosperity,  and  the  experience  of  modern 
society,  the  Palazzo  Vecchio — to  take  only  this  one 
building,  of  which  D'Azeglio  has  said  that  it  is  a 
magnificent  preface  to  the  annals  of  Florence — fit- 
tingly symbolizes,  by  its  rugged  exterior  and  splendid 
ornamentation  within^  the  dual  character  of  an  epoch 
in  which  the  body  was  hardy  Avhile  the  miixd  was  re- 
fined and  eager  for  knowledge.  The  history  and  art 
of  Florence  are  in  her  streets ;  and  to  walk  about  her 
squares,  and  to  visit  her  churches  and  palaces,  is 
equivalent  to  reading  the  chronicles  of  the  city  from 
the  twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  century. 

Art  necessarily  occupied  a  large  place  at  Florence, 
for  the  city  Avas  at  once  a  museum  and  a  temple.  I 
have,  therefore,  treated  the  arts  from  their  very  be- 
ginning, that  is  the  Etruscan  period,  to  their  deca- 
dence, in  chronological  order,  describing  the  genius 
of  each  artist  and  the  position  Avhich  he  held,  rather 
than  attempting  to  give  his  biography. 

I  do  not  retract  what  I  said  in  my  book  on  Venice, 
when  I  described  the  Frari,  and  the  San  Giovanni  and 
Paolo  monuments  as  the  most  splendid  which  had  ever 
been  erected  to  the  memory  of  man,  not  even  except- 
ing those  of  the  Vatican,  of  St.  John  Lateran,  and  of 
Santa  Maria  del  Popolo :  but  Avhile  those  at  Florence, 
erected  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  are 
plainer  and  less  pompous,  they  are  more  human  and 
more  touching,   and  Leopardi  himself,  with  the  in- 


INTEODUCTIOX.  9 

stincts  of  an  artist,  bent  the  knee  to  Desiderio  and 
Donatello.  Michael  Angelo  is  more  grandiose  and 
inscrutable,  stirring  the  imagination  and  inspiring  a 
sort  of  religions  terror  with  those  enigmatic  figures 
which  seem  to  be  carrying  on  in  the  obscurity  of  the 
tomb  "  the  inward  dream  never  to  be  completed ;" 
but  with  all  his  genius  he  lacked  the  infinite  candor, 
the  angelic  softness,  and  the  exquisite  chasteness  of 
these  sculptors  of  the  fifteenth  century.  They  re- 
mind us  of  Greece,  where  flowers  were  scattered  over 
the  graves,  giving  an  impress  of  gentle  repose  and 
peace  to  death,  and  stripping  it  of  its  sinister  char- 
acteristics. The  philosopher  and  the  cardinal  whom 
KoseUino  and  Desiderio  respectively  have  chiselled 
upon  the  marble  sarcophagus  seem  to  be  sleeping 
peacefully,  and  their  faces  only  reflect  the  calm  and 
the  beatitude  of  the  blessed  who  know  eternal  truth. 

I  need  not  say  that  it  is  impossible  to  describe 
within  the  limits  of  this  book  the  whole  history  of 
Florence,  I  can  only  endeavor  to  give  the  essence  of 
it.  Those  who  do  not  know  the  city  may  perhaps  be 
tempted  to  visit  her,  while  those  Avho  have  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  dwell  Avithin  her  Avails  aaIII,  I  A^enture 
to  hope,  bo  carried  back  in  memory  to  her,  and  ca^oIvc 
from  the  darkness  of  recollection  the  living  and  bright 
reality. 

As  it  Avas  necessary  to  make  a  choice  from  a  A'ast 
mass  of  matter,  Avliich  Avould  liaA^e  filled  ten  volumes, 
I  have  divided  the  Avork  into  several  sections,  begin- 


10  FLORENCE. 

ning  with  the  History  of  Florence  and  the  Benaissance 
Movement,  and  going  on  to  the  Xotahle  Personages  and 
to  Art  itself.  This  is  not  the  ^yhole  of  Florence,  but 
it  gives^  so  to  speak,  the  soul  of  the  great  city  which 
has  been  the  victim  of  one  of  the  greatest  historical 
movements  of  our  day — the  Unity  of  Italy. 

Florence  has  a  strong  claim  upon  our  affections,  for 
she  is  the  mother  of  all  those  to  whom  the  intellect  is 
more  than  the  body ;  and  her  streets  and  palaces  are 
a  fruitful  som'ce  of  study  and  instruction.  Rome  is 
grander,  and  appeals  more  strongly  to  the  imagina- 
tion ;  Venice  is  more  strange,  more  unique,  more 
picturesque  ;  but  Florence  is  more  indispensable  than 
either  of  them  to  humanity.  She  has  given  birth  to 
Dante,  the  divine  poet ;  to  ]\Iichael  Angelo,  the  "  man 
with  four  souls ;"  and  to  Galileo,  the  blind  man  who 
could  read  in  the  darkness  the  secrets  of  the  universe. 
If  Florence  disappeared  from  off  the  surface  of  the 
globe  the  archives  of  human  thought  woidd  lose  their 
most  famous  documents,  and  the  modern  Latin  race 
would  go  into  mourning  for  its  ancestors. 


HISTORY.  11 


C  H  A  P  T  E  K    I. 

HISTORY. 

Of  tlic  many  conflicting  opinions  as  to  the  origin  of 
Florence,  the  one  which  seems  to  have  the  greatest 
"weight  of  evidence  in  its  favor  is  that  it  is  Etruscan, 
or  at  all  events  that  it  owed  its  creation  to  the  debris 
of  the  last  Etruscan  cities  conquered  by  the  Romans. 
It  absorbed  those  colonists  Avhom  the  Greeks  called 
Tyrrhenians,  but  whom  the  Romans  named  Tuscans, 
and  who,  three  centuries  before  the  foundation  of 
Rome,  established  in  the  heart  of  the  peninsida  a 
powerful  kingdom  extending  from  Pisa  to  Tarquinium, 
between  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  foot 
of  the  Apennines.  Although  Machiavelli,  in  the  first 
chapter  of  his  "  Storie  Fiorentine,"  represents  Flor- 
ence as  being  a  Roman  colony,  built  by  the  cohorts 
of  Sylla,  modern  science  holds  to  the  opinion  that 
the  town  on  the  banks  of  the  Arno  was  originally  a 
city  formed  by  emigrations  from  Fiesole,  that  cradle  of 
so  many  artists,  from  whose  heights  the  eye  com- 
mands so  grand  a  prospect.* 

*  According  to  one  account,  Catiline  after  conspiring  against 
Eome  fled  to  Fiesole,  whither  the  Eonians,  under  the  consuls 


12  FLOEEXCE. 

Svlla,  the  proconsul,  embellished  the  city,  hut  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  it  suffered  greatly  at 
the  hands  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  who  descended 
at  that  time  like  a  plague  upon  Italy.  For  about  the 
space  of  two  himdred  years  little  or  nothing  is  known 
of  Florence,  but  during^tlie  comparative  peace  and 
order  of  Charlciiingnc'.s  rule  ^lie  once  more   emerged 


from  obscurity  and  In'gan  to  take  a  prominent  place 
among   the    Ivomaii    colonies   in    Tuscany,  of  which, 

I'  however,  Pisa  was  at  that  time  the  most  important. 
In  the  year  1010  the  hitherto  rival  cities  of  Flor- 
ence and  Fiesole  formed  an  alliance,  and  the  two 
coats  of  arms  were  blended  to  symbolize  the  union. 
Florence  abandoned  her  white  lily  and  Fiesole  her 
blue  half-moon,  so  that  the  new  device  was  simply  a 
shield  divided  in  the  middle,  the  red  field  of  Florence 
occupying  one  side  and  the  white  field  of  Fiesole  the 
other.* 

Metello  and  Fiorino,  followed  and  fought  him.  Fiorino  was 
killed  on  the  shores  of  the  Arno,  and  Julius  Cresar,  after  aveng- 
ing his  death  by  laying  siege  to  and  destroying  Fiesole,  built  a 
city  on  the  spot  onAvhich  lie  died,  called  Fiorenze,  in  memory  of 
him.  Another  tradition  makes  the  name  a  corruption  of  Flu- 
entia,  because  it  stands  at  the  junction  of  the  Arno  and  the  Mug- 
none  ;  while  still  another  ascribes  its  origin  to  the  great  number 
of  flowers  which  grow  in  that  region. 

'' Alfine  gli  abitanti  per  memoria 
Porch  'era  posta  in  un  prato  di  fiori 
Le  denno  il  nome  hello  onde  s'ingloria." 

*  The  lily,  however,  continues  to  this  day  to  be  used  as  the 


HISTORY.  13 

The  arms  of  the  Republic  underwent  further 
changes  at  each  great  event  in  lier  history  (ahhough 
the  standard  displayed  from  the  ^^  Caroccio  "  in  time 
of  war  was  invariably  the  red  and  white  field  adopted 
in  1010).  This  accounts  for  the  different  coats  of 
arms  carved  on  the  facades  of  some  of  her  public 
buildings.  AVe  find,  for  instance,  the  word  '^ Lihertas'''' 
on  a  blue  field,  the  device  of  the  Priors  of  the  Arts, 
w^hich  was  adopted  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century, 
when  Florence  threw  off  the  imperial  yoke.  The 
golden  keys  crossed  on  a  blue  ground,  bestowed  on 
the  city  in  1205  by  Clement  IV.    An  eagle  trampling 

emblem  of  the  city.  There  are  various  legends  as  to  its  origin. 
The  most  common  one  states  that  when  the  Florentines  were 
being  sore  pressed  by  an  army  of  Barbarians  on  Sta.  Reparata's 
Day,  October  8,  405,  the  saint  suddenly  appeared  on  the  battle- 
field, holding  in  her  hand  a  blood  red  banner  Avith  a  white  lily 
on  it,  and  turned  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  The  Florentines,  in 
grateful  remembrance  of  this  incident,  adopted  the  white  lily  on 
a  red  ground  as  their  coat  of  arms.  Anotlier  account  tells  how 
in  the  days  of  Xuma  Pompilius  a  crimson  shield  fell  from  Heaven 
into  Rome  and  was  adopted  as  the  "  insegna  e  arme^'  of  the  city. 
The  Romans  subsequently  bestowed  this  '^insegna''  upon  all  the 
cities  founded  by  them,  as  Perugia,  Florence,  Pisa,  and  the 
Florentines,  in  allusion  to  Fiorino  and  the  name  of  their  city, 
added  the  white  lily  as  an  "  Intrasegna-insegnafrapposta  ad  altra  nd 
campo  delV  ai'me  gentilizie." — Villari  Chroniche,  p.  22. 

In  1250  the  red  lily  on  a  white  field  was  adopted.  When,  the 
Guelphs  having  obtained  the  upper  hand,  the  Gliibellines  were 
driven  out  of  tlie  city,  the  latter  retained  the  wliite  lily,  and 
added  the  double-lieadcd  eagle  of  the  Empire. — See  Dante,  Di- 
vine Comedy,  Paradiso,  Cant.  xvi. 


14  FLORENCE. 

a  dragon  under  foot^  also  bestowed  by  Clement  TV., 
the  Guelplis  adding  the  small  golden  lily  later.  The 
golden  lilies  on  a  blue  field,  with  a  golden  file,  adopted 
when  Charles  of  Anjou  assumed  the  government  of 
the  city  in  1267.  And  the  shield  divided  perpen- 
dicularly, with  golden  lilies  on  a  blue  field  on  one  side, 
and  red  stripes  on  a  golden  field  on  the  other,  the 
arms  of  Eobert  of  Anjou,  King  of  Xaples,  appointed 
Lord  of  Florence  in  1313. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  eleventh  century  Flor- 
ence was  ruled  by  the  Countess  Matilda.  This  cele- 
brated woman  was  the  last  representative  of  the 
powerfid  house  of  Canossa.  Her  mother,  Beatrice  of 
Lorraine,  had  inherited  Tuscany,  Liguria,  part  of 
Lombardy,  Modcna,  and  Fcrrara,  and  Matilda,  an  ar- 
dent supporter  of  Hildebrand  (Gregory  VII.),  put 
herself  and  her  vast  possessions  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Pope,  bequeathing  everything  she  had  to  the  Holy 
See  at  her  death,  which  occurred  in  1115.  The  Em- 
peror denied  her  right  so  to  dispose  of  her  lands, 
claiming  them  as  fiefs  of  the  Empire,  and  thus  a  large 
part  of  Italy  was  drawn  into  the  struggle  between 
"those  two  halves  of  God,  the  Pope  and  the  Em- 
peror," which  was  destined  to  distract  her  for  cen- 
turies, and  convert  that  beautiful  country  into  a  vast 
battlefield.  Florence,  however,  always  keen  and 
wary,  contrived  to  hold  aloof,  and  quietly  occupied 
herself  in  strengthening  her  own  hands  and  building 
up  a  system  of  self-government^  so  that  in  due  course 


HISTORY.  15 

of  time  sho  was  able  not  only  to  resist  the  demands 
of  the  various  imperial  representatives  sent  to  her  by 
Henry  IV.  and  Frederick  Barbarossa,  but  to  adopt  a 
very  independent  tone  in  her  dealings  with  the  Popes 
themselves.  As  early,  however,  as  1177  civil  discord 
broke  out  among  her  citizens.  Many  of  the  powerful 
no])les  living  in  the  neighboring  country  or  "contado 
had  boeil  Fni])dued  by  the  Commune,  their  castles  de- 
stroyed^' and  tliey  themselves  forced  to  take  up  their 
abode  in  tin'  city,  wlifi'c,  fnr  some  time  at  least,  they 
were  excluded  from  tlic  })ri\  iloi^T's  of  citizenship  and 
all  share  in  the  Government.  Thanks  fo  this  policy  , 
a  strong  "  opposition '' party  was  formed,  composed/ 
of  these  immigrant  nobles,  several  powerful  families, 
Avith  the  Uberti  at  their  head,  who  had  been  kept  out 
of  office,  and  all  the  other  malcontents,  from  whatever 
cause,  who  happened  to  be  in  the  city.  They  rose 
against  the  Government,  and  for  two  years  the  city 
was  the  scene  of  continuous  broils  and  faction  tights. 

In  1184  Frederick  Barbarossa,  temporarily  recon- 
ciled with  the  Holy  See,  visited  the  city  in  person. 
The  nobles,  who  had  gotten  the  worst  of  it  in  their 
sfi'uggle  with  the  people,  made  a  formal  complaint  to 
him,  Avith  the  result  that  Florence,  by  Avay  of  pun- 
ishment, Avas  depriA^ed  for  a  short  time  of  her  juris- 
diction OA'cr  the  ''contado."  Party  feeling  ran  high, 
and  it  needed  but  a  triflins^  incident  to  kindle  into 
flames  the  smoldering  embers  of  mutual  distrust. 

In  the  year  1215  a  betrothal  took  place  between  a 


16  FLOEENCE. 

member  of  the  powerful  family  of  Buondelmonte  and 
a  daughter  of  the  Amadei.  As  the  former  was  rid- 
ing through  the  city  one  day  he  was  suddenly  ac- 
costed by  a  lady  of  the  house  of  Donati,  who  re- 
proached him  bitterly  for  allowing  himself  to  be 
drawn  into  an  alliance  in  every  way  unworthy  of 
him,  declaring  that  she  had  always  intended  to  bestow 
her  own  daughter  upon  him,  having  reserved  her  for 
this  very  purpose,  and  concluded  by  pointing  out  the 
maiden  in  question,  who  had  followed  her  mother  to 
the  street.  No  sooner  did  the  bridegroom-elect  set 
eyes  upon  her  than,  captivated  by  her  extraordinary 
beauty,  he  threw  honor  and  prudence  to  the  winds 
and  announced  his  intention  of  marrying  her  forth- 
with. Great  was  the  indignation  of  the  Amadei  when 
news  of  the  insidt  reached  them.  A  meeting  was 
held  of  all  the  relatives  and  adherents  of  the  family, 
who  bound  themselves  by  an  oath  to  avenge  the 
slight ;  and  on  Easter  morning,  lying  in  wait  for  the 
youthful  bridegroom,  they  dragged  him  from  his 
horse  near  the  Ponte  Yecchio  and  murdered  him 
forthwith.  The  Avhole  city  at  once  flew  to  arms, 
those  whose  leanings  were  towards  the  Guelphs  sid- 
ing with  the  Buondelmonti,  and  the  rest,  forming  a 
Ghibelline  party,  Avith  the  Amadei  at  its  head.  And 
thus  were  those  names  of  evil  omen  imported  into 
Florence,  where  they  became  the  rallying  cries  in  a 
struggle  AA'hieh  century  after  century  deluged  the  city 
with  blood,  led  to  the   exile  of  the   greatest  of  her 


HISTORY.  17 

children,    and    made    her    an    easy  prey  to   foreign 
powers.* 

By  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  Florence, 
Pisa,  Siena,  Arezzo,  and  Pistoia  were  firmly  estab- 
lished as  independent  commmies,  and  Florence  had 
engaged  in  numerous  wars,  directed  chiefly  against 
her  neighbors,  the  8ienese,  with  whom,  however,  a 
treaty  of  peace  was  signed  in  1235.  In  1248  the 
Emperor  Frederick  XL,  who  was  carrying  on  a  fierce 
struggle  with  Pope  Innocent  IV.,  treacherously  in- 
cited the  Ghibelline  leaders — the  Uberti — to  rise, 
hoping  to  strengtiLen  the  Imperialists  in  Italy  by 
stirrjpg  u^~party  feuds.  The  GhibeUincs  were  suc- 
cessful, and  tli<'  (hu'lphs  driven  out,  some  taking' 
refuge  in  the  upper  Valdarno  and  others  intrenching 
themselves  in  the  fortress  of  Capraia  in  the  lower 
Valdarno,  where  the  Ghibellines,  aided  by  reinforce- 
ments sent  by  the  Emperor,  attacked  and  eventually 
overcame  them.  The  Ghibellines,  left  in  undisputed 
power,  carried  things  Avith  so  high  a  hand  that  befor£_ 
long  popular  discontent  broke  out.  As  soon  as  the 
news  of  their  discomfiture  at  Montevarchi,  on  Octo- 
ber 20,  1250,  reached  Florence  the  people  assembled, 
and  meeting  with  little  or  no  resistance,  proceeded  to 

*  Guelph  was  derived  from  Welf,  and  Ghibelline  from  Wai- 
blingen,  a  castle  belonging  to  the  Emperor  Conrad.  They  are 
said  to  have  been  first  used  in  the  battle  of  "NVeinsberg  in  1 1 10,  in  a 
struggle  between  the  Welfs  of  Altdorf  and  the  imperial  line  of 
Ilohenstaufen. 


1) 


18  FLORENCE. 

establish   a  new   form  of  Government.       Thirty-six 
CajixyrtiJi  di  Popoh — six  for  each  of  the  six  wards  of 
the  city — were  appointed  ;  a   Cajntano  dyJ^OM^o^  to 
represent  the  people,  as  the  Podesta*  became  from 
henceforth  more  and  more  the  accredited  representa- 
tive of  the  nobles,  and,  Hke  him,  appointed  for  but 
one  year,  and,  to  balance  these  two  opposing  parties 
in  the  Government,  twelve  Anziauq  (elders)  del  Fopolo^ 
two   from  each  ward.     The   population  was  formed 
into   a  military  organization  under  the  comipand.jgf 
the  .Ca2)ifa)W,   the   city   being   divided    into   twenty 
armed  companies,  each  with  its  banner  and  Gonfa- 
loniere  ;  and  the  ringing  of  theT)ell  hung  in  the  Tower 
of  the  Lion,  by  the  Cajntano,  was  to  be  the  signal  for 
the  people  to  assemble.     This  civil  and  military  form 
of  Government,  so  rapidly  and  quietly  constructed 
and  adopted  by  the  Florentine  people,  was  thaAun- 
dation  upon  which  was  built  the  liberty  and  strength 
of  the  Republic. 

The  Ghibellines  were  cowed  for  the  nonce,  and  the 
exiled  Guelphs  returned.  For  ten  years  the  new 
Government  lasted — a  period  of  great  prosperity,  as 
witnessed  by  her  rapid  growth  in  wealth  and  power. 

*  The  office  of  Podesta  was  created  in  the  year  1207.  The 
city  was  then  governed  by  gix  consuls  and  a  Senate,  and  with  a 
view  to  obtaining  impartiality  in  the  administration  of  justice  it 
was  determined  to  appoint  a  "  foreigner  "—i.*'.,  some  one  from 
another  city — to  preside  over  the  civil  and  criminal  courts  for  the 
space  of  one  year,  with  the  title  of  Podesta,  and  full  authority  to 
convict,  pass  sentences,  and  execute  judgments. 


HISTORY.  19 

In  1252  the  gold  florin  was  first  struck.  Then  came 
the  disastrous  battle  of  Montaperti — in  September, 
12G0 — when  the  Guelphs  were  utterly  defeated  by 
an  army  of  Ghibellines  collected  at  Siena  by  Fari- 
nata  degli  Uberti.  So  great  was  the  slaughter  that 
Dante  speaks  of  it  as  having  dyed  the  waters  of  the 
Arbia  red. 

"Che  fece  1' Arbia  colorata  in  rosso." 

— Inferno,  Canto  x. 

Florence  came  near  paying  with  her  very  exist- 
ence on  that  occasion  for  the  discord  she  had  let  loose 
among  her  children,  and  to  Farinata  degli  Uberti  is 
due  the  honor  of  having  saved  her  from  total  destruc- 
tion, for  when  at  the  conference  of  the  Ghibelline 
leaders,  which  took  place  at  Empoli  after  the  battle, 
it  was  suggested  to  raze  the  turbulent  city  to  the 
ground,  he  alone  of  all  present  interposed  in  her  be- 
half, and  to  such  purpose  that  the  infamous  project 
was  abandoned. 

Another  brief  period  of  peace  ensued,  the  people, 
excluded  by  the  Ghibellines  from  all  participation  in 
public  affairs,  devoted  their  surplus  energies  to  the 
extension  of  trade,  and  commerce  received  so  mar- 
vellous an  impetus  that  the  foundations  were  laid  of 
many  great  private  fortunes,  and  the  commonwealth 
increased  enormously  in  wealth  and  importance. 
Manfred,  the  friend  and  ally  of  the  Ghibellines,  hav- 
ing been  defeated  and  slain  in  February,  1266,  the 
Guelphs  began  to  reassert  themselves,   and  by  the 


20  FLOKE^XE. 

following  November  had  managed  to  gain  control  of 
the  city,  from  whence  they  sallied  forth  from  time  to 
time  on  victorious  expeditions,  directed  against  the 
surromiding  cities,  towns,  and  villages,  where  Gliib- 
ellines  were  known  to  have  taken  refuge. 
]  In  October,  1278,  however,  both  parties  having 
grown  weary  of  strife.  Pope  Nicholas  III.  was  re- 
quested to  mediate  between  them,  and  accordingly 
dispatched  Cardinal  Latino  to  represent  him,  with 
the  result  that  peace  was  concluded,  and  from  hence- 
forth the  name  of  Ghibelline  is  but  little  heard  in  the 
annals  of  Florence.  Then  began  a  period  of  extra- 
*-^"''"  ordinary  prosperity  ;  arts  and  industries  flourished  to 
a  surprising  extent,  and  Florence  took  the  first  place 
among  all  the  Tuscan  communes.  Florentine  mer- 
chants enjoyed  the  highest  reputation  for  integrity 
throughout  not  only  Italy,  but  the  entire  world. 
Magnificent  buildings  were  erected  by  order  of  the 
commune,  and  also  by  private  enterprise,  while  archi- 
tecture, literature,  and  art  were  represented  by  such 
men  as  Arnolfo  di  Cambio,  Dante,  and  Cimabue. 
After  the  death  of  Frederick  IL,  in  December,  1250, 
an  interregnum  had  occurred  in  the  Imperial  succes- 
sion, and  when,  in  1281,  Kudolph  of  Hapsburgh  en- 
deavored to  recall  the  Tuscan  communes  to  their  alle- 
giance, it  was  found  that  they  had  grown  completely 
\  beyond  the  Imperial  control,  while  the  Guelph  party 
\  being  pre-eminent,  the  support  of  the  Pope  could  be 
I      relied  upon. 


Portrait  of  Dante  from  the  Fresco  in  the  Barg^ello* 

Giotto. 


HISTORY.  21 

In  1282  an  important  change  was  made  in  the  form 
of  government.  Among  other  means  taken  by  Car- 
dinal Latino  to  establish  a  lasting  peace  between  the 
factions  had  been  the  substitution  of  a  body  com- 
posed of  fourteen  citizens — eight  Guclphs  and  six 
Ghibellines — for  the  An.:i(uti.  It  was  now  enacted 
that  Priori  clelle  Arti  should  be  selected,  one  by  each 
guild,  ib  be  its  president,  and  that  three  of  these,  that 
is,  one  from  each  of  the  three  powerful  Guilds  of  the 
Calimalaj^the  money -db^ftgers,  and  the  woollen-cloth 
merchants,  should  be  appointed  to  be  at  the  head  of 
the  Government.  Before  long  the  ""  fourteen  "  Avere 
abolished  altogether  and  the  priors  increased  to  the 
number  of  six.  The  council  thus  formed  was  the 
nucleus  of  the  celebrated  body  of  the  Sigiioria,  the 
office  of  Gonfaloniere  being  created  in  1293. 
-  In  1289  a  great  battle  Avas  fought  at  Campaldino, 
in  which  Florence  and  the  Guelph  Government 
achieved  a  signal  victory  over  the  Aretines,  aided  by 
exiled  Ghibellines.  Dante,  then  about  twenty-four, 
took  part  in  this  battle,  and  Vieri  de'  Cerchi  behaved 
with  great  gallantry. 

The  peace  which  now  seemed  to  be  so  firmly  es- 
tablished was,  however,  destined  to  be  of  short  dura- 
tion, and  before  long  the  old  quarrel  broke  out  with 
increased  violence  under  new  party  names. 

The  most  powerful  family  of  Pistoia  was  at  this 
time  the  Cancellieri,  but  these  numerous  descendants 
of  a  common  ancestor,  who  had  had  two  wives,  had 


J 


22  FLOKEXCE. 

quarrelled  among  themselves.  The  whole  city  was 
dividcdj  those  espousing  one  side  taking  the  name  of 
]3tancJii,  after  one  wife,  and  the  others  styling  them- 
selves Ko'i. 

In  1300  Florence,  thinking  to  mend  matters,  took 
the  government  of  the  distracted  city  into  her  own 
hands,  and  conceived  the  unfortunate  idea  of  banish- 
ing the  chiefs  of  both  factions  to  Florence,  tvith  the 
result  that  all  the  friends  and  connections  of  the  Bian- 
chi,  with  Vieri  de'  Cerchi  at  their  head,  at  once  es- 
poused their  cause,  while  the  Kcri  had  as  poAverful 
a  following,  with  Corso  Donati  for  their  leader.  Thus 
was  Florence  once  more  torn  by  internal  discord, 
the  old  Guelph  party  siding  for  the  most  part  with 
the  Nerij  and  the  Ghibellines  with  the  BiancJii  The 
former,  fearing  that  the  others  were  getting  things  too 
much  into  their  own  hands,  determined  to  apply  to 
Pope  Boniface  VIII.  to  settle  the  dispute.  He  ac- 
cordingly summoned  Yieri  de'  Cerchi  to  Rome,  coun- 
selled him  to  become  reconciled  Avith  his  enemies — 
Messer  Corso  Donati  in  particular — and  promised 
him  his  favor  and  protection  if  he  would  do  so.  But 
Yieri  would  have  none  of  it,  declared  that  he  was  not 
at  enmity  with  anyone,  and  returned  to  Florence, 
leaving  the  Pope  greatly  incensed  against  him  and 
his  party.  The  so-called  ''  Ordinances  of  Justice," 
instituted  in  1293  l^y  Giano  della  Bella,  a  powerful 
Guelph  leader,  only  served  to  arouse  opposition  and 
discontent,  being   drastic  measures   directed  chiefly 


HISTORY.  23 

against  tlie  nobles  of  whatever  party.  The  office  of 
Gonfaloniere  was  created  at  the  same  time^  as  one  of 
the  means  of  enforcing  the  "  ordinances." 

A  skirmish  that  occurred  during  the  popuhir  fes- 
tivities on  May  Day,  1300,  between  the  youths  of 
both  factions,  set  the  whole  city  in  an  uproar.  The 
Guelphs  again  applied  to  the  Pope  for  aid,  and  Car- 
dinal Acquasparta  was  sent  to  Florence  in  the  quality 
of  Papal  Legate.  In  June,  as  the  city  guilds  were 
going  in  procession,  headed  by  their  consuls,  to  the 
church  of  San  Giovanni, — it  being  the  eve  of  the  fes- 
tival of  that  saint, — a  party  of  nobles  belonging  to 
the  Xeri  suddenly  attacked  them,  shouting,  '^  We  are 
the  ones  who  gained  the  victory  at  Campaldino,  and 
you  are  keeping  us  out  of  all  the  offices  and  emolu- 
ments of  our  city  !"  In  order  to  quell  the  disturbances 
the  Priors — Dante  being  one  at  that  time — decided 
to  banish  for  a  certain  period  some  of  the  leaders  of 
each  party.  The  Bianchl  left  at  once,  but  the  Xcri 
resisted,  and  a  plot  was  formed,  with  the  connivance 
of  the  Legate,  to  introduce  an  armed  force  from  Lucca 
into  the  city.  The  Signory,  however,  getting  wind 
of  it,  put  a  stop  to  the  whole  thing,  and  forced  the 
conspirators  to  leave.  Whereupon  the  Legate,  seeing 
no  hope  of  establishing  certain  '^  reforms  "  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Republic,  upon  which  he  had  set  his 
heart,  departed  in  dudgeon,  and  Florence  was  placed 
under  a  Papal  interdict. 

The  Emperor   Henry  VII.   died  in  1313,  but  not- 


24  FLORENCE. 

withstanding  this  severe  blow  the  Ghibelline  party, 
under  Uguccione  dell'  Fagginola,  won  the  battle  of 
Montecatini  against  the  Florentines  in  1315,  and 
were  again  victorious  in  1325  at  Altopascio,  under 
the  notorious  Castruccio  Castracane  of  Lucca. 

In  1342  the  Florentines,  feeling  that  aftairs  were  in 
a  very  bad  Avay  indeed  in  their  city,  invited  Gaul- 
thier  de  Brienne — styled  Duke  of  Athens  by  reason 
of  some  shadowy  claim  to  that  title — to  hold  the  office 
of  Captain  and  Protector  of  the  People  for  one  year, 
and  also  to  be  Captain-General.  The  duke  was  given 
the  same  salary,  privileges,  and  authority  as  his  pre- 
decessor, but  showed  himself  to  be  such  a  tyrant  and 
despot  that  before  many  weeks  had  elapsed  the 
Florentines  were  anxious  to  be  rid  of  him.  This, 
however,  proved  no  easy  matter,  and  it  was  not  until 
he  had  held  office  nearly  a  year  and  a  number  of 
plots  against  his  life  had  been  defeated  that  he  and 
his  supporters  Avere  ffiially  driven  out. 

The  absence  of  any  one  holding  supreme  authority 
led  to  a  renewal  of  popular  agitation,  and  the  form  of 
government  was  continually  changing,  first  the  peo- 
ple, and  then  the  nobles  getting  the  upper  hand — the 
Grandi  and  the  PopoJani,  or  the  Fopoh  gnisso  and 
the  ])opolo  minuto. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  troubles  a  terrible  scourge 
fell  upon  Florence.  In  1348  the  plague  coming  from 
the  East  ravaged  the  city,  destroying,  according  to 
Machiavelli,  a  hundred  thousand  persons,  and  indi- 


HISTORY.  25 

rectly  inspiring  Boccaccio  with  a  work  wliicli  is  gen- 
erally looked  upon  as  his  masterpiece.  A  body  called 
the  ''  Capitani  dl  Parte  Giielfa  ''  had  been  instituted 
in  1267,  and  had  gradually  come  to  wield  an  almost 
unlimited  power^  two  leading  families,  the  Albizzi 
and  the  Ricci,  being  rivals  for  the  foremost  places  in 
it ;  and  we  find  Salvestro  de'  Medici  now  appearing 
in  the  office  of  Gonfalonier,  and  as  the  favorite  and 
leader  of  the  people. 

By  the  spring  of  1378  the  tyranny  of  the  rulers 
had  become  intolerable,  the  popular  discontent  waxed 
greater  and  greater,  finally  culminating  in  the  out- 
break termed  the  '^  Ciompi  Revolution,"  in  allusion  to 
the  ciompi — wooden  shoes — worn  by  the  artisans  who 
took  part  in  it.  Before  the  close  of  July  the  people  had 
gained  their  ends.  Michele  di  Lando,  a  wool  comber, 
who  for  about  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours  had 
absolute  control  of  the  Government,  used  his  authority 
to  hold  an  election  of  members  for  a  new  Sii2:norv, 
and  enforce  other  measures  by  which  order  was  re- 
stored. 

The  fifty  years  that  elapsed  between  these  events 
and  the  rise  of  the  Medici  family  to  power  were  at 
once  stormy  and  brilliant.  When  the  inevitable  re- 
action against  the  popular  government  came,  the  Al- 
bizzi succeeded  in  obtaining  the  ascendency,  and  in 
1382^  their  long  oligarchical  government  began. 
There  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  plenty  of  civil 
strife,  but  with  it  all  Florence  succeeded  in  carrying 


26  FLORE^XE. 

on  foreign  wars  of  aggression,  in  enlarging  her  terri- 
tory, and  in  increasing  her  commerce.  The  prevail- 
ing system  of  taxation  was,  however,  a  cause  of  great 
discontent,  especially  among  the  lower  classes,  on 
whom  it  bore  most  heavily.  When  at  last,  through 
the  efforts  of  Giovanni  de'Medici,  a  reform  was  effected 
in  1427  the  gratitude  of  the  people  knew  no  bounds, 
and  the  foundation  was  laid  of  that  influence  and 
popularity  upon  which  the  Medici  family  afterwards 
built  up  their  enormous  power. 

From  the  death  of  Giovanni,  Avhich  occurred  in 
February,  1429,  up  to  within  a  few  years  of  the  fall 
of  the  Republic — a  period  covering  about  a  hundred 
years — the  history  of  Florence  is  practically  the  his- 
tory of  the  Medici  family,  which  I  am  about  to  trace 
from  its  origin  to  the  height  of  its  greatness,  and  its 
final  decline. 


'''    YlWJi/'^^'^" 


ran^Vdil ' 


iiilHti^niiy)  ^     lo  'lyrfj 


»U/J1  ill  1  V  ' 


V)  t^-'Mt^T^sK   -    T'»i)n 


GKNEALOGY  0?THE   MKDlf  t    FAMILY. 

fllRAEDO. 
<5'm«(Skd~(  1360—1428) . 


Co«irao  the  Elder,  Father  of  = 
his  Conntry  (1389—1464).    I 

Piero  I.       —  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni.        C 


Lorenzo     - 
I  1396-1440). 


11467-1504).    {     Storza. 


fflinal  ' 
(1511—1535). 


Catherine  —  Dae  d'Orltens,    Alexander  —  Margaret  of 
(1619-1689).      afterwardg      (1610—1537),       Austria, 
Henri  11.       PitBt  Dulie  of    daughter  of 
Florence.  Cliarles  V. 


i 


Francesco  =  1st.  Joanna  of 

[arius  (1641  I  Austria. 

-1687).  2d.   Bianca 

I  Capello. 


Cosinio  m.  =  Marie  Loui| 
(I642-I723).  I      d'OrlSans. 

John  Gorton 
(1671—1737). 


THE  MEDICI.  27 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    MEDICI. 

The  origin  of  the  Medici  is  purely  Florentine.  As 
early  as  1215  we  find  a  certain  Buonagiunta  de' 
Medici  appearing  as  one  of  the  councillors,  and  the 
name  constantly  reappears  in  the  annals  of  that  early 
period.  The  first,  however,  to  occupy  a  prominent 
place  in  history,  and  rise  high  enough  above  the 
level  of  his  fellow-citizens  to  foreshadow  that  this 
merchant  family  was  destined  to  give  Tuscanv  her 
future  sovereigns,  was  Giovanni  di  Bicci  de'  Medici, 
whose  election  in  1421  to  the  office  of  Gonfaloniere, 
while  it  caused  much  satisfaction  among  the  people, 
did  not  fail  to  arouse  great  uneasiness  among  the 
rulers.  Niccolo  da  Uzzano  pointed  out  clearly  to  his 
associates  the  danger  of  thus  placing  power  in  the 
hands  of  one  who  not  only  came  from  a  prominent 
and  ambitious  family,  but  himself  possessed  wealth 
and  mental  attainments  far  above  the  ordinarv.  Gio- 
vanni was,  however,  far  too  sagacious  a  man  to  en- 
danger his  position  by  any  overt  act.  He  kept  his 
ambition  in  check,  devoted  himself  to  the  accumulation^ 
of  enormous  wealth,  effected  a  reform  in  the  method 
of  taxation — being  the  author  of  the  famous  Catasta 


28  FLOKENCE. 

— and  died,  deeply  regretted  by  all  classes^  on  tlie 
28th  of  February,  1428. 

^[achiavelli  has  left  a  portrait  of  him  ^vhich  all 
writers  of  history  have  accepted.  He  was  very 
charitable,  seeking  out  the  poor  in  order  to  relieve 
them.  Affable  to  all  men,  he  was  never  a  candidate 
for  posts  of  honor,  and  yet  they  were  showered  upon 
him.  He  was  only  to  be  seen  at  the  Government 
palace  at  such  times  when  the  public  weal  demanded 
his  presence.  Of  a  pacific  disposition,  he  did  all  in 
his  power  to  avoid  war.  Careful  of  the  public  money, 
his  main  object  was  to  increase  the  revenues  of  the 
State.  In  public  office  he  distinguished  himself  by 
his  benevolence.  Without  being  absolutely  eloquent, 
he  was  gifted  with  rare  intehigence.  Sedate  and  even 
melancholy  in  appearance,  he  was  amiable  and  cheer- 
ful in  his  relations  with  others.  Born  in  1360,  he 
was  twice  elected  Prior,  once  Gronfaloniere,  and  once 
a  member  of  the  War  Council  of  Ten.  He  was  mar- 
ried to  Piccarda  Bueri,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons, 
Cosimo  and  Lorenzo.  He  lived  to  see  these  two  sons 
grow  up  and  develop  habits  of  great  activity,  both 
mental  and  physical,  and  to  find  that,  while  liberal 
and  generous,  they  sought  to  increase  the  family  in- 
heritance and  make  it  useful  to  the  State. 

At  his  death  Giovanni  was  interred  in  the  sacristy 
of  the  Basilica  of  San  Lorenzo,  which  he  had  em- 
ployed Brunelleschi  to  restore  at  his  expense.  He 
had  not,  however,  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing  the 


THE  MEDICI.  29 

completion  of  tlils  edifice^  which  was  to  be  the  pan- 
theon of  liis  family,  though  the  work  was  carried  on 
by  his  two  sons.  His  tomb  is  situated  in  the  centre 
of  the  Sagrestia  Vecchia,  Avhere,  five  years  later,  his 
wife  was  laid  beside  him.  It  is  only  after  looking 
through  all  the  original  correspondence  of  these  mer- 
chant princes,  as  I  have  done,  that  one  can  appre- 
ciate their  lofty  intellect,  their  flexibility,  and  varied 
attainments.  There  was  nothing  doing  in  their  day 
in  which  they  had  not  some  share,  or  Avhich  came  for- 
eign to  them,  whether  war,  public  office,  diplomacy, 
politics,  art,  or  literature ;  and,  above  all,  they  were  en- 
dowed— gifted  politicians  that  they  were — with  pecu- 
liar affability  towards  men  of  low  degree,  did  they 
but  possess  any  real  merit. 

Warmth  of  heart  and  the  power  to  kindle  enthu- 
siasm in  others  were  their  special  attributes,  as  may 
be  gathered  from  passages  in  some  of  the  letters  still 
preserved  in  the  ^^  Archivio  di  Stato "  of  Florence, 
under  the  title  '^  Lettere  Innanzi  il  Principato." 

COSIMO  THE  ELDEE. 

During  his  father^s  lifetime  Cosimo  had  taken  part 
in  public  affjiirs  while  still  engaged  in  the  business  of 
his  house,  and  as  he  had  a  reputation  for  unusual  in- 
telligence, combined  with  rare  prudence,  he  was  on 
several  occasions  selected  to  undertake  the  most  deli- 
cate missions,  as,  for  instance,  when  he  represented 
the  Republic  of  Florence  at  the  Council  ot  Constance, 


30  FLOKENCE. 

when  the  claims  of  Baldassare  Cossa — John  XXIII. — 
to  the  Papacy  were  set  aside.  There  is  a  curious  in- 
cident in  this  connection  which  testifies  to  the  proud 
attitude  assumed  by  the  Repubhc  towards  the  great 
powers^  including  the  greatest  of  them  all — the 
Papacy.  After  his  deposal  by  the  Council,  Cossa  fled 
in  disguise — it  is  said  accompanied  by  Cosimo — but 
having  been  discovered  and  taken,  he  was  confined 
by  order  of  the  Council,  in  Heidelberg  Castle,  where 
he  would  no  doubt  have  remained  for  the  rest  of  his 
life  had  he  not  paid  a  large  sum  of  money  as  a  ran- 
som and  promised  to  do  homage  to  his  rival  on  his 
knees.  This  ceremony  took  place  in  Florence  with 
much  pomp  and  circumstance.  Martin  Y.  then  re- 
storing him  to  favor,  he  was  appointed  Cardinal- 
Bishop  of  Frascati  and  permitted  to  pass  the  brief 
remainder  of  his  days  in  peace  at  Florence,  where 
his  death  occurred  in  January,  1418.  Donatello  and 
Michelozzo  Michelozzi  were  instructed  to  erect  a  tomb 
worthy  of  one  who  had  been  ^^  Pope  and  prisoner  of 
a  Pope."  A  splendid  monument  was  accordingly 
raised,  which  may  still  be  seen,  in  the  Baptistery  of 
San  Giovanni,  on  the  right  of  the  high  altar.  But 
the  inscription  provoked  the  wrath  of  Pope  Martin, 
who  had  never  quite  forgiven  the  Florentines  for  a 
doggerel  about  himself  which  the  little  boys  had 
shouted  through  the  streets  on  the  occasion  of  his  last 
visit,  and  he  imperiously  demanded  that  the  words 
^^  quondam   papa "    should   be    erased^  to  which   the 


THE  MEDICI.  31 

Signory  returned  the  disdainful  reply  :  '^  Quod  scripsi 
scripsi."  It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  Pope  Jolin^  out 
of  gratitude  for  the  many  services  rendered  him  by 
Giovanni  and  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  bequeathed  them 
large  sums  at  his  death,  but  this  has  been  disproved 
by  the  publication  of  the  Medicean  Archives,  among 
which  are  documents  showing  that  the  Pontiff  actually 
died  in  debt  to  the  house  of  Medici.* 

Giovanni  lived  long  enough  to  initiate  his  sons  into 
public  life,  but  Cosimo  ranked  higher  than  his  father, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  fame  of  his  family. 
He  married  the  daughter  of  Count  Bardi,  and  when 
he  became  head  of  the  house  his  influence  and  credit 
increased  every  day.  He  did  not  exercise  any  offi- 
cial authority  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  but  that 
moral  supremacy,  to  which  the  public  gave  voluntarv  >^ 
adhesion,  and  which  became  the  hereditary  privilege 
of  this  illustrious  family,  was  in  his  case  very  marked. 

The  Government  at  that  time  "consisted  of  a  Coun- 
cil of  Priors,  presided  overby  a  Gonfaloniere,  appointed 
for  a  period  of  only  two  months,  in  order  that  power  ^ 
might  not  remain  permanently  in  the  hands  of  anv 
one  party.  This  precaution  against  tyranny  was 
rendered  useless,  if  not  by  the  devices  of  the  Medici, 
at  all  events  by  the  extraordinary  influence  which 
thev  exercised  over  the  masses.     They  had  so  multi- 


*  See  Archivio  Storico  Italiano.      (Vol.  iv.,  page  433,  Docii- 
lenti,  i.,  ii.,  and  iii.) — Napier's  Florentine  Hist. 


32  FLORENCE. 

plied  their  good  deeds^  had  made  such  an  intelligent 
use  of  their  wealth,  and  had  managed  their  patronage 
so  well,  that  every  one  felt  his  hands  to  be  tied,  and 
unconsciously,  perhaps,  surrendered  at  discretion. 
"With  this  class  the  public  weal  was  identified  with 
the  private  interests  of  the  Medici.  If  at  the  elec- 
tions Cosimo,  Lorenzo,  and  their  children,  nephews, 
and  more  distant  relatives  did  not  gain  the  vote  for 
themselves,  partisans  of  their  family  were  returned. 
In  course  of  time  a  powerful  party  of  the  Florentines 
came  to  look  upon  the  Medici  as  the  natural  deposi- 
taries of  power,  as  a  nursery  garden  of  politicians 
indispensable  to  the  public  welfare. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  they  had  made 
many  enemies,  and  Rinaldo  degli  Albizzi,  who  was 
leader  of  the  opposite  faction,  contrived  in  the  autumn 
of  1433  to  obtain  control  of  the  Signory  about  enter- 
ing into  office,  so  that  on  September  7th  Cosimo  was 
cited  to  appear  before  that  body  at  the  palace.  Act- 
ing against  the  advice  of  his  friends  he  obeyed  the 
summons,  and  was  forthwith  consigned  to  a  prison 
within  the  walls  of  that  building. 

The  historian  who  resides  at  Florence,  and  the 
man  of  the  world  who  always  likes  to  compare  monu- 
ments with  history,  and  to  see  if  documents  tally  with 
oral  statements,  may  still  picture  to  themselves,  by 
visiting  in  the  tower  of  the  Old  Palace  the  prison 
called  the  Alberghettino,  the  scene  which  was  enacted 
there  in  1433,  when  Cosimo,  placed  under  the  charge 


THE  MEDICI.  6'6 

of  Federico  Malvolti^  exchanged  the  splendor  of  his 
father's  palace  for  the  gloomy  and  confined  residence 
to  which  he  was  consigned  by  his  enemies.  jMachia- 
velli  says  that,  for  fear  of  being  poisoned,  the  son  of 
Giovanni,  Avho  was  soon  to  be  called  the  ^'  Father  of 
his  Country,"  refused  all  food  for  four  days,  and  sub- 
sisted on  a  crust  of  bread. 

He  was  shortly  afterwards  banished,  taking  refuge 
iirst  at  Padua  and  afterwards  at  Venice.  He  was 
not  the  only  victim  of  the  Signory,  his  brother 
Lorenzo,  with  all  the  other  Medici  and  their  prin- 
cipal partisans,  being  likewise  obliged  to  leave  Flor- 
ence. 

Cosimo  was  at  that  time  forty-six  years  of  age,  and 
we  know  that  during  his  exile  he  interested  himself 
in  art,  science,  and  literature,  and  that  Avhile  at 
Venice  he  applied  to  some  of  the  eminent  artists  who 
were  destined  to  become  illustrious  in  his  service  for 
designs  for  the  buildings  which  he  purposed  some  day 
to  erect.  It  was  evident  that  in  exiling  him  the  Flor- 
entines wished  to  get  rid  of  a  citizen  Avhoni  they 
deemed  too  powerful,  and  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
Aristides,  they  were  tired  of  hearing  him  called  the 
Just.  This  was  only  a  prudent  step,  no  doubt,  on 
the  part  of  those  avIio  were  anxious  to  preserve  the 
Republican  form  of  government ;  but  the  people  are 
always  ready  to  accept  a  certain  degree  of  servitude, 
and  are  easily  aroused  to  enthusiasm  for  those  who 
seem  born  to  command.     Before  a  year  had  elapsed 

3 


34  FLORENCE. 

they  began  to  murmur  and  demand  the  recall  of 
Cosimo,  who  had  not  conspired  agamst  his  country, 
and  who,  while  in  exile,  still  sought  to  embellish  and 
to  render  it  more  prosperous.  Pope  Eugenius,  then 
at  Florence,  threw  the  weight  of  his  influence  in  with 
the  Medician  party,  and  by  the  force  of  the  reaction 
— ^which  is  one  of  the  characteristic  features  of  popu- 
lar government — Cosimo  was  recalled.  Then  was 
witnessed  the  singular  spectacle  of  a  whole  city  going 
out  to  greet  one  who  was  neither  a  conqueror  nor  a 
chosen  ruler,  but  merely  a  man  who  had  peacefully 
exercised  a  constant  influence,  and  whose  moral  au- 
thority, not  guarded  by  any  decree  or  law,  was  as 
effectual  as  any  recognized  and  legal  power. 

From  this  time  forth  the  Republic  ceased  to  exist 
in  reality,  though  not  in  name,  for  that  was  main- 
tained for  a  long  time,  Cosimo  being  styled  the  Father 
of  his  Country  ;  but  the  ]\Iedici  dynasty  was  prac- 
ticaUy  established,  and  the  people  paid  willing  obei- 
sance to  a  family  whose  ^^  manifest  destiny  "  Avas  so 
plainly  indicated.  The  date  of  their  return  (1434) 
marks  virtually  the  end  of  the  Republican  epoch. 

Cosimo  Avas  then  in  his  prime,  and  he  lived  for 
thirty  years  after  his  return  from  exile.  Reading 
with  care  the  history  of  Florence,  it  will  be  seen  that 
these  thirty  years  were  the  most  prolific  in  regard  to 
^  intellectual  culture  and  the  development  of  art. 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  reaped  the  harvest,  but  his- 
tory must  ascribe  the  merit  of  it  to  Cosimo  the  Elder. 


THE  MEDICI.  35 

The  mere  recollection  of  this  memorable  epoch  makes 
the  heart  beat  faster,  and  the  hand  which  Avould  fain 
depict  it  cannot  but  tremble.  One  must  go  back  to 
the  days  of  Pericles  to  find  so  lofty  a  flight  in  every  ^ 
branch  of  literature,  science,  and  art.  Countless 
books  have  been  written  about  the  Renaissance,  and 
no  effort  has  been  spared  to  trace  out  its  origins,  and 
to  show  by  what  combination  of  circumstances  this 
sublime  efflorescence  of  human  genius  was  brought 
about.  There  are  indeed  apparent  and  immediate 
causes,  but  the  movement  had  been  long  in  prepara- 
tion, and  the  two  preceding  centuries  remarkably  rich 
in  artistic  productions. 

Cosimo,  besides  those  literary  tastes  which  led  him 
to  gather  around  liim  the  greatest  thinkers,  philoso-  A 
phers,  and  poets  of  his  day,  also  took  a  strong  interest 
in  architecture,  and  had  a  practical  knowledge  of  art ; 
it  is  to  him  that  w^e  owe  San  Lorenzo,  the  church  and 
convent  of  St.  Mark,  the  monastery  of  San  Verdiana, 
the  monastery  of  San  Gerolamo  upon  the  heights  of 
Fiesole,  where  the  Gerolamite  hermits  assembled, 
until  it  was  suppressed  by  Clement  IX.,  and  the  abbey 
of  San  Bartolomeo  and  San  Romolo  for  the  canons  of 
the  Lateran.  At  Mugello,  his  favorite  residence  until 
Careggi  was  built,  he  reconstructed  from  its  very 
foundations  the  convent  of  Bosco  a  Prati,  and  in  each 
of  these  rcHgious  houses  he  took  care  that  there  was 
a  library  of  MSS.  Countless  was  the  number  of 
private   chapels   built   at   his   expense,   such   as   the 


36  FLORENCE. 

i^oviziato  at  Santa  Croce ;  and  those  in  the  convent 
of  Agnoli  belonging  to  the  Camalduli  Fathers ;  in  the 
church  of  the  Servi ;  and  that  of  San  Miniato  al 
Monte.  When  to  these  are  added  the  gift  of  all  the 
ornaments^  furniture,  and  utensils  necessary  for  cele- 
brating public  worship^  it  will  be  seen  what  immense 
wealth  the  house  of  Medici  must  have  possessed. 

Giovanni  himself  lived  in  .great  state,  but  his  son 
outdid  him  in  splendor.  San  Tommaso  in  Mercato, 
the  first  residence  of  the  Medici,  was  abandoned  for 
the  splendid  palace  in  the  Via  Larga.  During  his 
lifetime  he  had  four  summer  residences  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Florence  :  Careggi,  which  still  exists,  Fie- 
sole,  Cafaggiuolo,  and  Trebbio.  He  kept  up  the  state 
of  a  prince  rather  than  of  a  private  individual,  and 
his  charities  were  far  reaching,  for  he  founded  an 
asylum  at  Jerusalem  for  needy  pilgrims,  and  em- 
ployed his  leisure  time  while  exiled  at  Venice  in 
founding  a  library  of  MSS.  in  the  monastery  of  the 
canons  of  San  Giorgio. 

All  the  subsequent  doings  of  the  Medici  are  well 
known,  and  I  have  had  in  my  hand  the  account-books 
of  the  expenses  of  all  these  buildings ;  these  historic 
documents,  which  are  now  of  great  value,  being  pre- 
served in  the  State  archives  of  Florence.  They  are 
called  the  ^'  Libro  di  Ragione,"  and  it  was  in  them 
that  the  steward  kept  a  debtor  and  creditor  account 
of  all  that  he  paid  and  received.  During  the  life- 
time of  Giovanni  alone  the  expenditure  under  this 


THE  MEDICI.  37 

head  amounted  to  five  hundred  thousand  gold  crowns, 
and  even  this  enormous  sum  did  not  make  any  ap- 
preciable difference  in  the  ever-growing  fortune  of 
the  house.  It  will,  of  course,  be  well  understood  that 
Giovanni  himself,  the  founder  of  the  house,  did  not 
amass  all  this  wealth,  his  inheritance  from  his  father 
being  a  very  considerable  one  ;  but  his  business  as  a 
money-changer,  carried  on  upon  an  immense  scale, 
had  increased  it  very  much.  As  far  back  as  the 
fourteenth  century  the  Medici  had  sixteen  counting- 
houses  in  different  cities  of  Europe,  and  they  had  also 
contracted  for  the  taxes  and  excise  of  the  Republic, 
so  that  a  very  large  profit  accrued  from  all  these 
transactions,  conducted  with  a  scrupidous  honesty 
which  had  established  their  credit  upon  very  solid 
foundations.  Moreover,  they  carried  on  a  banking 
business,  and  it  w^as  to  these  operations — not  always 
very  profitable,  because  they  sometimes  lent  money 
to  those  of  their  fellow-citizens  who  could  not  pay 
the  interest,  or  even  Avhat  they  had  borrowed — that 
they  owed  their  immense  popularity.  This  generosity 
may,  however,  not  have  been  wholly  disinterested, 
and  several  contemporary  writers,  Varchi  among 
them,  have  denounced  their  liberality  as  being  all  a 
sham,  and  have  said  that  Giovanni  founded  the  influ- 
ence of  his  family  upon  corruption,  and  bought  his 
way  to  supreme  power. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  Giovanni  and  his  two  sons  be- 
came bankers  to  kings,  and  lent  money  to  sovereigns 


38  FLORENCE. 

■vvho  sought  to  possess  tliemselves  of  dominion.  Ed- 
Avard  IV.  always  said  that  it  was  thanks  to  them  that 
he  wore  the  crown  of  England. 

For  such  a  man  as  Cosimo,  with  children  worthy 
of  himself — animated  by  a  liberal  and  generous  spirit, 
a  warm-hearted  and  intelligent  patron  of  arts,  science, 
and  letters,  circumspect  and  daring  by  turn,  as  occa- 
sion requires — there  need  be  no  limit  to  success.  He 
possessed,  moreover,  that  most  powerful  of  all  engines 
for  travelling  along  the  road  to  power — boundless 
wealth.  The  name  of  Medici,  like  that  of  Maecenas, 
>j/  became  in  future  ages  the  synonym  for  an  enlightened 
patron  of  literature ;  and  if  this  family  did  not  absolutely 
initiate  the  extraordinary  movement  which,  starting 
from  Florence,  spread  throughout  Italy,  they  sup- 
ported it  with  such  ardor  and  profound  conviction 
that  they  gave  their  name  to  the  century,  so  that  one 
now  speaks  of  the  '^  age  of  the  Medici "  as  of  the 
^^  age  of  Pericles." 

Cosimo,  in  his  position,  might,  had  he  so  desired, 
have  espoused  some  Italian  princess,  or  even  the 
daughter  of  a  sovereign  house ;  but  he  had  the  tact 
to  marrv  a  Florentine,  the  daughter  of  Count  Bardi ; 
and  he  adopted  the  same  course  with  his  children, 
marrying  his  eldest  son  Piero  to  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni, 
and  his  other  son,  Giovanni,  to  Cornelia  degli  Ales- 
sandri.  His  brother  Lorenzo  died  comparatively 
young,  without  having  occupied  a  very  prominent 
place  in  the  State ;  but  as  he  left  a  son,  Piero  Fran- 


THE  MEDICI.  39 

cisco  de'  Medici,  the  family  divided  into  two  branches 
— the  elder,  of  which  Cosimo  the  Father  of  his 
Country  was  the  head,  and  the  younger,  issuing 
from  Lorenzo,  second  son  of  Giovanni  Averardo  di 
Bicci. 

It  was  Cosimo  Avho  built  the  Medici  Palace,  now 
called  the  Riccardi  Palace,  as  a  ftimily  residence. 
Machiavelli  has  described  his  death  in  the  villa  at 
Careggi,  and  has  left  a  flattering  portrait  which  brings 
out  the  principal  traits  in  his  character.  After  enu- 
merating his  endowments,  his  undertakings,  and 
splendor  of  life,  he  praises  him  for  having  always  pre- 
served, both  in  public  and  private,  so  simple  a  de- 
meanor that  he  might  easily  have  been  mistaken  for 
the  humblest  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  led  for  the 
most  part  a  very  laborious  life,  but  during  his  latter 
years  allowed  himself  some  mental  relaxation,  and 
leaving  the  management  of  his  business  to  the  Torna- 
buoni,  the  Benci,  the  Portinari,  and  the  Sassetti, 
w^hose  fortunes  he  had  made,  surrounded  himself  with  X 
men  of  letters,  and  artists.  He  was  the  personal 
friend  of  Donatello  and  Michelozzo,  of  Marcilio  Ficino, 
of  Cristofero  Landino,  of  Giovanni  Cavalcanti,  of 
Bartolomeo  and  Filippo  Valori,  of  Baccio  Ugolini,  of 
Giovanni,  Pico,  and  of  Leone  Battista  iVlberti. 

He  had  not,  it  nuiy  be  admitted,  the  high  intellect- 
ual culture  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  but  it  was 
enouo'h  for  a  Medici  to  be,  as  re<rards  comprehension 


and  enthusiasm,  on  a  level  Avitli  those  who  produce 


40  FLOEENCE. 

and  create.  Moreover  there  are  extant  letters  of 
Cosimo  tlie  Elder  which  show  that  he  was  an  ardent 
student.  In  one  of  these  he  writes  to  Marcilio  Ficino  : 
'"'■  I  came  to  Careggi  yesterday  as  much  for  the  pur- 
pose of  improving  my  land  as  of  benefiting  myself. 
Come  to  see  me  as  soon  as  you  possibly  can,  and  do 
not  forget  to  bring  with  you  divine  Plato's  treatise  on 
^  The  Sovereign  Good.'  You  ought  ere  this  to  have 
translated  it  into  Latin.  There  is  no  research  to  which 
I  woidd  devote  myself  more  zealously  than  to  that  of 
truth.  Come,  then,  and  bring  with  you  the  Orphean 
lyre." 

This  is  not  the  only  proof  of  his  enthusiasm  for 
literature.  In  the  shrubberies  and  woods  of  Careggi 
he  spent  the  hottest  hours  of  the  day  in  learned  dis- 
cussion with  the  great  writers  and  philosophers  whose 
names  we  have  quoted.  A  profound  admirer  of 
Gemistas  Plethon,  the  Greek  philosopher  who  up- 
held the  doctrines  of  Plato,  and  whose  tomb  I  dis- 
covered at  Rimini,  Cosimo  determined  to  found  a 
Platonician  school,  and  he  placed  at  the  head  of  it 
Marcilio  Ficino,  a  man  of  profound  intellect,  a  great 
thinker,  a  great  writer,  and  a  Christian  philosopher, 
who  declared  that  the  proofs  of  the  Divinity  were  to 
be  found  among  the  pagans,  as  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church  in  his  day  Avere  not  sound.  Marcilio  was  the 
son  of  Cosimo's  physician ;  and  beneath  the  trees  of 
Careggi,  and  in  the  rooms  of  that  summer  residence, 
there  assembled  an  areopagus  composed  of  the  human- 


THE  MEDICI.  41 

ists  wlio  paved  the  way  for  tlie  literary  Renaissance 
in  Italy. 

The  death  of  Cosimo  the  Elder  was  very  touching. 
He  had  been  unhappy  in  his  private  life,  for  Gio- 
vanni, the  son  whom  he  liked  best,  had  died  young, 
and  Piero,  nicknamed  Gotfoso — so  deformed  and  de- 
bilitated was  he  by  gout — became  too  infirm  to  bear 
the  burden  of  public  affairs.  Cosimo,  therefore,  found 
his  sole  consolation  in  literature.  Still,  he  lived  to 
see  his  grandson  Lorenzo,  the  son  of  Piero,  grow  up, 
and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  this  lad  showed  signs  of  the 
ability  which  made  him  the  greatest  man  of  his  day. 
Cosimo,  however,  never  got  over  the  death  of  Gio- 
vanni, and  as  he  was  being  carried  one  day  in  his 
chair  through  the  magnificent  rooms  of  the  Riccardi 
Palace  he  was  heard  to  murmur,  '^  Too  large  a  house 
for  so  small  a  family."  Cosimo  died  on  the  1st  of 
August,  1464,  at  Careggi,  just  outside  Florence,  and 
he  was  buried  in  the  basilica  of  San  Lorenzo,  at  the 
foot  of  a  marble  column.  The  traveller  who  visits 
the  church  and  pauses  before  the  high  altar  will  be 
standing  upon  a  circle  of  inlaid  marble  bearing  the 
inscription,  "  Cosmus  Medicos — Hie  Situs  est — 
Decreto  PubHco — Pater  Patriae." 

PIEEO  I.     (NICKNAMED  THE  GOUTY.) 
(141G-14G9.) 

Piero  the  Gouty,  who  was  never  popular,  survived 
his   father  five  years,  and  died  at  the  age  of  fifty- 


42  FLOEENCE. 

three,  hit3  ill-health  preventing  him  from  taking  an 
active  part  in  public  affairs.  As  his  brothers  Carlo 
and  Giovanni  had  predeceased  him,  the  only  brilliant 
representative  of  the  race  of  the  Medici  was  his  sou 
Lorenzo,  who  gave  early  promise  of  his  distinguished 
abilities.  At  Cosimo's  death  Piero  on  the  advice  of 
Diotisalvi  Neroni,  a  trusted  friend  and  councillor  of 
his  father,  took  a  step  which  made  him  very  unpopular. 
He  had  a  list  of  his  debtors  made  out,  and  sought  to 
recover  the  sums  standing  against  their  names,  but 
as  Cosimo  had  never  claimed  these  moneys,  which  in 
many  cases  had  been  advanced  without  any  intention 
of  having  them  repaid,  his  right  was  called  in  ques- 
tion and  his  popularity  gone.  For  all  that  he  was 
a  thorough  Medici,  and  in  many  respects  a  very 
interesting  character.  Following  the  example  of 
Cosimo,  he  retained  the  services  of  Marcilio  Ficino, 
and  published  at  his  own  expense  the  five  volumes 
of  Plato  which  the  latter  had  translated  into  Latin. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  he  founded  a 
chair,  in  Avhich  ]\L^rcilio  gave  lectures  on  the  great 
Greek  philosopher  to  large  and  enthusiastic  audi- 
ences. There  was  quite  a  fever  for  study,  and  it  is 
difficult  for  us,  absorbed  as  we  are  in  the  common- 
places of  politics  and  in  the  dreary  round  which 
dampens  all  generous  ideas  and  extinguishes  all  noble 
aspirations,  to  conceive  the  enthusiasm  which  took 
possession  of  the  people  of  Florence.  Marcilio  Ficino 
suspended  before  the  bust  of  Plato,  as  above  the  altar 


THE  MEDICI.  43 

of  a  cliurcli^  a  liglited  lamp.  Francesco  Saccliotti 
tells  us  that  on  one  occasion  an  admirer  of  Dante  took 
the  tapers  which  were  huniing  upon  the  altar  of  the 
crucifix,  and  placed  them  before  the  poet's  bust,  say- 
ing, ^^  Accept  them,  for  you  are  more  worthy  of  them 
than  He."  The  whole  city  was  a  prey  to  delirium, 
but  delirium  of  a  most  generous  kind. 

Boccaccio  was  the  earliest  reader  of  the  Iliad  and 
the  Odyssey  in  the  original,  and  he  translated  them 
into  Latin  with  the  assistance  of  a  Greek  residing:  in 
Calabria.  Petrarch,  who  did  not  know  Greek,  but 
who  had  read  the  Latin  translation,  preserved  the 
originals  as  a  relic.  The  movement  in  favor  of  Hellen- 
ism was  started  by  the  Greeks  who  came  to  the 
Council  of  Florence,  and  Piero's  son  vulgarized  the 
poets  and  historians  of  antiquity  by  forming  the 
famous  library  of  manuscripts  which  in  course  of  time 
became  the  ^^  Laurentiana." 

During  the  reign  of  Cosimo  the  Elder,  Xiccolo 
Niccoli  spent  all  his  fortune  in  purchasing  manu- 
scripts, and  Cosimo,  remarking  how  well  versed  he 
was  in  antiquities,  took  him  into  his  employ,  and 
opened  a  credit  to  enable  him  to  buy  whatever 
seemed  to  him  Avorth  having.  It  was  he  who  dis- 
covered the  remaining  works  of  Ammianus  IMarcelli- 
nus,  Cicero's  '^  de  Oratore,"  and  the  Lubecca  Pliny. 
He  had  converted  his  house  into  a  public  librarv, 
and  any  one  Avas  allowed  to  go  in  and  read,  copv,  or 
translate,   while   those   who  wanted   advice    on   any 


44  FLOKENCE. 

point  connected  with  their  studies  received  all  the 
assistance  in  his  power.  At  his  death  he  left  eight 
hundred  manuscripts,  valued  at  eight  thousand  gold 
florins,  which  Cosimo,  with  his  usual  liberality,  pur- 
chased and  presented  to  the  monastery  of  San  Marco, 
which  occupies  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  history 
of  Florence.  By  his  wife  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni,  Piero 
had  two  sons,  Lorenzo  and  Giuliano,  and  by  his  own 
express  desire  he  was  buried  without  pomp  in  the 
Sagrestia  Vecchia  of  San  Lorenzo.  His  sons  Lorenzo 
surnamed  the  Magnificent,  and  Giuliano,  built  him  a 
superb  tomb  near  the  entrance  to  the  Lady  Chapel. 
Andrea  Yerocchio,  the  sculptor  of  the  equestrian 
statue  of  Colleoni*  and  the  ^^  Child  and  the  Dolphin," 
was  employed  on  its  execution.  It  consists  of  a  por- 
phyry sarcophagus  resting  upon  a  marble  slab  sup- 
ported by  bronze  tortoises,  and  decorated  with  foliage 
of  the  most  exquisite  workmanship. 

LOKEXZO  THE  MAGNIFICENT. 

(1448-1492.) 

Camilla  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni,  the  mother  of  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent  son  of  Piero,  has  left  behind  her  a 
reputation  for  great  prudence,  resolution,  and  dig- 
nity, some  of  the  stories  which  are  related  of  her  re- 
minding one  of  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi.  She  was 
as  highly  educated  as  any  woman  of  her  time,  and 

^  See  chapter  on  Yerrochio. 


THE  MEDICI.  45 

the  number  of  works  dedicated  to  her  prove  how 
much  interest  she  took  in  literature.  Piero  and  she 
had  selected,  as  tutor  for  their  son  Lorenzo,  Gentile 
of  Urbino,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Arezzo.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Cristofero  Landino  ;  and  Argjropulus,  a 
learned  Hellenist  who  had  taken  refuge  at  Florence 
after  the  foil  of  Constantinople,  taught  the  boy  Greek 
and  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle.  Marcilio  Ficino, 
the  friend  of  his  father  and  the  son  of  his  grand- 
father's physician,  instructed  him  in  the  doctrines  of 
Plato. 

The  precocity  of  Lorenzo  had  struck  every  one, 
and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  so  intimately  versed 
in  political  affairs  that  he  was  deemed  ripe  for  a  diplo- 
matic mission.  He  was  first  sent  to  Pisa,  to  receive 
Frederick,  son  of  Ferdinand  King  of  Naples  ;  then 
to  Rome,  where  Pope  Paul  IL  took  a  great  fancy  to 
him  ;  to  Bologna,  in  order  to  strengthen  the  ancient 
alliance  between  Florence  and  the  Bentivoglios  ;  to 
Ferrara,  in  order  to  gain  over  the  Este  family  ;  to 
Milan,  where  he  stood  godfather  to  a  son  of  Duke 
Galeazzo  Sforza  ;  and  to  Venice,  Avhere  he  kept  him- 
self informed  as  to  the  doings  of  the  Republic,  which 
was  always  ready  to  take  hostile  action  against  Flor- 
ence. In  1466  a  conspiracy  formed  against  him  and 
his  father,  who  was  to  have  been  put  to  death  while 
being  carried  in  his  litter  from  Careggi  to  Florence, 
was  discovered  and  crushed,  some  assert  through  the 
vigilance  of  Lorenzo.     Accaiuoli  and  Diotisalvi  Xe- 


46  FLOKENCE. 

roni  at  once  fled,  and  the  rest  of  the  conspirators  be- 
ing exiled,  fined,  or  admonished,  the  Medician  party 
was  left  in  complete  power.  On  the  death  of  Piero 
there  followed  a  comparatively  peaceful  epoch  of  de- 
velopment for  arts  and  literature.  Lorenzo  was  at 
the  head  of  this  movement,  forming  his  magnificent 
collections  and  founding  libraries.  Always  surrounded 
by  the  leading  personages  of  the  time,  he  devoted  aU 

y  his  leisure  to  literary  pursuits,  and  it  was  at  this  period 
that  he  carried  on  those  discussions  in  the  woods  of 
the  CamaldulcE  with  Cristofero  Landino,  Rinuccini, 
the  two  Acciajoli,  Leo  Battista  Alberti,  and  Marcilio 
Ficino,  anent  the  charms  of  a  contemplative  life, 
which  gave  rise  to  the  Disjyutationes  Camaldulenses 
of  Landino. 

Full   of    enthusiasm   for  literature,   Lorenzo    was 

,r  himself  the  author  of  numerous  sonnets,  odes,  religious 
and  other  poems  of  sufficient  merit  to  place  him  among 
the  foremost  poetical  writers  of  his  day.  His  Canti 
Caniavaleslii  are  sometimes  called  the  earliest  exam- 
ples of  the  modern  satire  in  the  Italian  language.  He 
was  very  partial  to  what  were  then  called  "  triumphal 
displays,"  the  various  tableaux  in  which  were  de- 
signed by  himself,  and  the  execution  intrusted  to  the 
greatest  artists  of  the  day.  No  pains  were  spared  to 
make  these  fleeting  representations,  in  which  an- 
tiquity was  revived  for  an  hour,  as  perfect  as  possi- 
ble. The  painters  decorated  the  chariots  and  de- 
signed the  costumes,  the  sculptors  had  the  modelling 


THE  MEDICI.  47 

of  the  groups^  horses  were  caparisoned  in  the  skins 
of  lions,  tigers,  or  elephants,  beautiful  women  were 
adorned  with  the  emblems  of  the  pagan  divinities, 
and  poets  commented  on  these  compositions,  and  de- 
scribed the  figures  in  the  triumphal  processions. 
Parts  in  it  were  taken  by  such  men  as  Alemanni, 
Ruccelai,  and  Xardi;  and  a  Medici  or  a  Strozzi  would 
spend  fabulous  sums  in  converting  his  fancy  into  real- 
ity for  an  hour.  The  corporations,  at  that  time  so 
powerful,  united  in  the  effort  to  make  these  "tri- 
umphs "  succeed,  and  men  learned  in  antiquity,  like 
Pohtian  and  Marcilio  Ficino,  were  asked  to  do  their 
part  towards  gratifying  the  partiality  of  the  Floren- 
tine people  for  these  allegories. 

I  have  searched  in  vain  for  some  pictorial  record 
of  the  wonderfid  fetes  given  by  the  Medici  and  other 
wealthy  citizens  of  their  day  ;  but  the  art  of  engrav- 
ing, by  which  they  might  have  been  preserved  to  us, 
was  not  then  in  existence.  It  was  not  imtil  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century  that  a  few  painters,  whose 
very  names  have  been  forgotten,  began  to  reproduce 
on  canvas  contemporaneous  events ;  these  pictures, 
Avhich  enable  us  to  form  an  accurate  idea  of  the  cos- 
tumes and  festivals  of  the  time,  and  of  Florentine  life 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  being  very  scarce.  It  is 
only  in  Paolo  Ucello,  or  upon  the  marriage  caskets, 
of  which  South  Kensington  Museum  possesses  a  fine 
collection,  that  we  catch  a  few  glimpses  of  what  pub- 
lic and  private  life  was  at  that  period.     We  know  by 


48  FLORENCE. 

a  casket  in  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  at  Florence 
what  an  aristocratic  wedding  was  like^  and  the  fres- 
coes by  Benozzo  Gozzoli  in  the  Riccardi  Palace  en- 
able us  to  form  an  opinion  of,  the  deportment  of  the 
day ;  but  a  plastic  record  of  life  in  Florence  anterior 
to  1450  is  rarely  to  be  met  with.  The  only  insight 
into  the  inner  ways  of  the  inhabitants  is  that  which 
is  to  be  gained  from  the  manuscripts  of  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  the  embossed  reliefs  on  caskets,  and  a 
few  rare  specimens  of  contemporary  art.  With  these 
exceptions  all  is  antique.  Piero  della  Francesca,  Pisa- 
nello,  PoUauiolo,  Paolo  Ucello,  Benozzo  Gozzoli,  and 
Matteo  da  Pasti  have  recorded  with  chisel,  pen,  or 
brush  some  incidents  of  every-day  life,  trifling  at  that 
time,  but  of  surpassing  interest  now  ;  and  this  is  all 
we  know.  Botticelli,  Lippi,  and  Memmi,  engrossed 
in  allegorical  studies,  tell  us  nothing  of  their  own  time, 
closely  as  their  style  is  identified  with  it. 

We  are  more  fortunate  as  regards  literature,  though 
without  illustrations  to  accompany  them  the  many 
narratives  of  these  contemporary  Avriters  carry  little 
meaning  with  them,  interesting  as  are  the  works  of 
Boccaccio,  Francesco  Sacchetti,  Jacobo  Passavanti, 
Giovanni  Yillani,  Poggio  Bracciolini,  and  Niccolo 
Niccoli. 

The  sixteenth  century  abounds  in  documents,  and 
there  are  as  many  as  twenty  illustrated  works  repre- 
senting festivals  and  "triumphs."  Yet,  interesting 
as  these   are,  they  have  not  the  raciness  of  the  fif- 


Portrait  of  one  of  the  Medici  in  the  Riccardi  Chapel* 

Benozzo  Gozzolu 


THE  MEDICI.  49 

teenth  century^  and  one  cannot  help  regretting  that 
it  is  impossible  to  convey  a  precise  idea  of  the  singu- 
lar customs  which  then  prevailed. 

The  narrative  of  a  Florentine  triumph,  designed 
by  Andrea  Dazzi — reader  of  Greek  and  Latin  to  the 
academy  of  the  city — the  cost  of  which  was  borne 
by  the  Del  Diamante  Company,  is  still  extant.  Dazzi 
suggested  three  chariots  representing  Youth,  Man- 
hood, and  Old  Age.  The  artists  Avho  designed  the 
chariots  were  RafFaello  delle  Vivole,  La  Carota,  and 
Andrea  del  Sarto ;  while  the  costumes  and  figures 
were  designed  by  Piero  da  Vinci,  the  father  of  Leo- 
nardo, and  Bernardino  di  Giordano.  The  first  chariot 
bore  the  motto  :  '''  We  shall  be  ;'^  the  second,  ''  We 
are  ;"  the  third,  '"'  We  have  been." 

Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  like  all  the  citizens  of 
that  day,  belonged  to  a  corporation  ;  he  Avas  presi- 
dent of  his,  the  "  Broncone,"  and  he'  commissioned 
Japo  Xardi,  a  very  learned  man,  to  design  him  six 
chariots,  so  that  the  festival  might  be  a  more  impos- 
ing one. 

Pontormo  was  the  painter  who  executed  this  de- 
sign. The  first  chariot,  drawn  by  oxen,  represented 
the  Golden  Age  with  Saturn,  Janus,  the  double-faced, 
seated  in  front  of  the  Temple  of  War,  the  door  of 
which  was  closed,  holding  the  key  of  the  temple,  and 
trampling  Discord  under  foot  ;  then  came  semi-nude 
shephci'ds  crowned  with  flowers,  mounted  on  tigers 
and  lions.      Then  came  Numa  carrying  the  religious 


50  FLORENCE. 

books,  all  the  orders  of  priesthood,  the  augurs,  the 
haruspices,  and  all  the  pagan  liturgy,  with  the  mate- 
rial for  offering  up  sacrifices. 

Titus  Manlius  Torquatus  followed  upon  a  triumphal 
car  drawn  by  eight  horses,  preceded  by  senators  with 
lictors  and  fasces.  Behind  him  Julius  Caesar  tri- 
umphant, in  a  car  drawn  by  elephants,  surrounded 
by  all  the  imperial  court,  and  followed  by  the  peoples 
whom  he  had  vanquished.  Caesar  Augustus  repre- 
sented in  the  cortege  the  '''  Triumph  of  the  Poets," 
some  of  whom,  crowned  with  laurel  and  mounted 
upon  winged  horses,  personified  their  native  province, 
while  each  carried  the  works  he  had  composed.  The 
sixth  car  was  that  of  the  Emperor  Trajan,  accom- 
panied by  the  doctors  of  the  law  and  the  imperial 
legislators.  The  car  of  the  Grolden  Age,  carved  by 
Baccio  Bandinelli,  brought  up  the  rear.  Lastly,  upon 
a  golden  terrestrial  sphere,  a  figure  representing  Dis- 
cord was  writhing  in  convulsions  ;  while  a  naked  in- 
fant, glittering  with  gold,  represented  the  Youth  of 
the  renascent  Golden  Age.  The  chronicler  adds  that 
this  beautiful  child,  the  son  of  a  baker,  who  had  doubt- 
less served  as  a  model  for  some  of  Donatello's  and 
Desiderio  da  Settignano's  sculptures  on  the  tombs  in 
Santa  Croce,  caught  cold  and  died  soon  afterwards. 

Upon  another  occasion  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent 
celebrated  the  '^  Triumph  of  Bacchus  f'  but  the  only 
description  of  this  masquerade  we  have  is  the  lines 
which  he  composed  for  the  occasion,  his  theme  being, 


THE  MEDICI.  51 

"  Let  us  Ccat  and  driiikj  for  to-morrow  we  die."  The 
canti  carnavalcschl  of  that  day,  it  may  be  stated,  were 
very  often  full  of  buffoonery  and  ribaldry. 

The  Florentine  people  were  never  tired  of  these 
festivals,  and  every  variety  of  subject  was  brought 
into  recpiisition.  On  one  occasion  a  group  of  artists, 
who  were  in  a  gloomy  vein,  after  having  celebrated 
the  "  Triumph  of  Life,"  determined  to  represent  the 
^^  Triumph  of  Death."  Li  the  midst  of  the  carnival, 
when  all  was  joy  and  mirth,  and  the  streets  and  bal- 
conies were  filled  with  eager  spectators,  a  chariot, 
painted  black,  with  death's  heads  and  cross-bones 
picked  out  in  Avhite,  and  drawn  by  black  buffaloes, 
was  paraded  through  the  streets,  a  black  skeleton, 
with  a  scythe  in  its  bony  hands,  being  enthroned 
upon  coffins.  The  chariot  halted  at  each  street  cor- 
ner, and  a  suite  of  mourners  and  lugubrious  phantom 
figures  chanted  in  a  mournful  key  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  funeral  trumpets  : 

*'Fummo  gia  come  voi  siete  : 
Voi  sarete  come  noi  : 
Morti  siara  come  vedete  : 
Cosi  morti  vedrem  voi." 

'^  We  were  as  you  are,  you  will  be  as  we  are  ;  and 
as  you  see  us  dead,  so  shall  we  see  you  dead."  It 
may  easily  be  imagined  what  consternation  and  ter- 
ror this  caused  the  timid  women  and  children  in  the 
crowd,  while  the  more  sceptical  indulged  in  sinister 
jokes. 


52  FLORE^XE. 

Vasari  has  given  a  long  description  of  this  singular 
device,  the  invention  of  which  he  ascribes  to  Piero 
de^  Medici,  the  father  of  Lorenzo.  It  was  Pontormo, 
once  more,  who  was  commissioned  to  design  the 
chariot,  which,  in  order  to  lend  more  reality  to  the 
scene,  was  followed  by  a  number  of  men  (supposed 
to  be  dead)  on  horseback,  the  leanest  and  the  most 
cadaverous-looking  that  could  be  found  having  been 
selected  for  the  occasion.  These  were  followed  by 
naked  mutes,  carrying  a  torch  in  one  hand,  and  in  the 
other  a  large  standard  with  skull  and  cross-bones. 

Yasari  was  himself  intrusted  with  the  preparations 
for  another  '^  triumph,"  all  the  details  of  which,  in- 
cluding the  monuments  and  temporary  altars,  the 
chariots,  the  allegorical  figures  and  the  dresses,  were 
designed  by  him.  All  his  original  drawings  have 
been  preserved  in  an  album,  which  is  in  the  print- 
room  of  the  Uffizi  Gallery,  where  I  recently  exam- 
ined it  in  the  company  of  Chevalier  Carlo  Pini,  the 
librarian,  whose  premature  death  has  been  so  univer- 
sally regretted.  Lorenzo  was  unquestionably  the 
V  greatest  of  the  Medici  family,  the  true  Maecenas  of 
his  day,  and  even  before  the  '^Principato,"  when  only 
called  as  first  citizen  to  fill  a  post  from  which  he  could 
at  any  moment  be  displaced,  he  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  intellectual  movement,  and  became  the 
centre  and  the  protector  of  art  and  literature.  He  was 
the  intimate  friend  of  Donatello  and  ^lichelozzo  Mich- 
elozzi,  and  bv  their  advice  formed  unrivalled  collec- 


THE  MEDICI.  63 

tions  of  pictures,  statuary,  antique  stones,  gems, 
goldsmith's  work,  and  sumptuous  furniture,  litting 
out  the  Riccardi  Palace  with  the  most  valuable  and 
most  perfect  specimens  of  eacli.  Every  article  in 
this  collection  bore  either  his  arms  or  his  initials. 
There  are  porphyry  vases  now  in  the  possession  of 
Baron  Davilliers  of  Paris  which  unquestionably 
formed  part  of  it. 

Passionately  fond  of  arcliitecture,  Lorenzo  worked 
himself  with  the  most  noted  architects  of  his  day,  and  ^ 
they  always  found  his  opinions  worth  listening  to. 
He  was  equally  zealous  in  the  cause  of  literature,  and 
founded,  first  at  San  Marco  and  afterwards  at  San 
Lorenzo,  a  school  of  copyists,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
reproduce  ancient  manuscripts.  The  Laurentian 
Library,  designed  by  Michael  Angelo,  and  added  to 
by  Vasari,  is  a  witness  to  the  zeal  of  the  Medici  for 
the  advancement  of  learning. 

Lorenzo  spared  no  effort  to  gather  around  him 
learned  men  of  all  countries.  He  reopened  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pisa,  paid  the  professors,  took  upon  him-  >- 
self  the  cost  of  additional  buildings,  provided  them 
with  books,  and  dispatched  Giovanni  Lascari  to  the 
East  with  an  unlimited  credit  to  make  fresh  pur- 
chases. It  was  a  plain  citizen  who  did  all  this,  and 
it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  of  Florence  Avas  centred  in 
his  person.  Strange  to  say,  ambassadors  were  ac- 
credited to  him  as  to  a  sovereign,  even  when  he  was 
only  an  individual  member  of  the  Council  of  State ; 


54  FLORENCE. 

and  a  hundred  different  circumstances  combined  to 
increase  bis  personal  autbority,  wbicb  made  itself  felt 
as  a  mere  matter  of  course.  The  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many ;  King  Jobn  II.  of  Portugal ;  tbat  great  patron 
of  literature,  Mattbias  Corvin  5  and  Louis  XI.  bim- 
self,  tbat  astute  politician  and  prince,  wbo  paved  tbe 
Avay  for  Frencb  unity  by  bis  abasement  of  tbe  feudal 
lords,  corresponded  Avitb  bim,  it  may  be  said,  as  with 
an  equal,  for  be  received,  without  any  intermediary, 
their  ambassadors  and  their  messages.  I  have  ex- 
amined, in  the  State  archives  of  Florence,  all  the  let- 
ters which  go  to  make  up  the  Medici  Cartcggio  before 
and  after  tbe  "  Principato,"  and  it  is  most  instructive 
to  see  in  what  familiar  terms  the  highest  personages 
in  human  lustory  carried  on  discussions  with  a  private 
individual. 

Tbe  historian  Guicciardini  has  left  a  description  of 
Florence  in  the  prosperous  year  of  1490,  when  tbe 
city,  in  the  enjoyment  of  peace  under  the  tranquil 
rule  of  Lorenzo,  seemed  to  have  reached  the  summit 
of  its  splendor.  He  depicts  Tuscany  as  being  en- 
riched from  mountain,  to  valley  and  plain  by  the 
peaceful  and  orderly  labor  of  its  prosperous  inhabit- 
ants ;  the  State  as  being  calm  in  the  knowledge  of 
its  strength,  in  no  fear  of  servitude  either  from  Rome 
or  tbe  Empire,  and  successful  in  attaching  to  itself 
those  nei^rbborino*  cities  which  were  formerlv  hostile 
and  independent  ;  princes  as  coming  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  to  visit  the  city  and  do  homage  to  the 


THE  MEDICI.  55 

IVredici  and  the  eminent  citizens  wlio  Avere  gatliered 
around  them  ;  and  the  extraordhiary  advance  of  civil- 
ization in  every  department  of  the  national  life.  He 
depicts  for  us  a  people  supple,  skilful,  well  gifted,  and 
so  devoted  to  art  that  each  street  was  a  museum  in 
itself,  and  a  class  of  artists  who  had  an  inborn  taste 
like  the  Athenians  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  and  who 
seemed  able  to  create  Avithout  bodily  fatigue  or  men- 
tal effort  marvels  Avhicli  move  and  fascinate  us  even 
now.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  unparal- 
leled prosperity  was  due  to  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Avho 
carried  on  the  Avork  of  his  ancestor  Cosimo,  the  peace- 
maker of  Italy  and  the  moderator  of  the  Republic. 

PRIA^\TE    LIFE    OF    LORENZO   THE   MAGXIFICEXT, 

It  is  interesting  to  in\'estigate  the  character  in  pri- 
vate life  of  this  remarkable  man.  His  intimates  and 
associates  at  Careggi  and  Camalduli  liaA^e  given  him 
his  place  in  history,  and  Politian  asserts  that  none  of 
them  Avere  his  superiors  as  regards  subtlety  of  argu- 
ment and  soundness  of  judgment.  He  AA-as  somcAvhat 
caustic,  it  has  been  said,  and  his  epigrams  have  re- 
mained famous  ;  but,  Avitli  all  his  undisputed  author- 
ity, he  Avas  endoAved  Avith  a  generosity  Avhich  impelled 
him  to  make  future  proA'ision  for  the  many  gifted  men 
who,  absorbed  by  intellectual  Avork,  had  failed  to  put 
by  anything  for  their  old  age.  He  has  been  accused 
of  being  a  deA'otee  of  pleasure,  of  acting  a  double 
part — of  being,  that  is,  very  austere   in  his  public 


y 


56  FLORENCE. 

capacity  and  a  pleasure-seeker  in  private,  tlioiigli 
able  at  a  moment's  notice  to  revert  to  business.  His 
father  had  married  him  while  stiU  very  young  to 
Clarice  Orsini,  of  an  ilhistrious  Roman  family,  and 
the  ceremony  was  performed  on  the  4th  of  June, 
1469.  The  marriage  was  not  one  of  the  heart,  for 
Lorenzo  recorded  it  as  follows  in  his  diary :  ^^  I, 
Lorenzo,  have  taken  in  marriage  Clarice,  daughter 
of  Jacob  Orsini ;  or  rather,  she  was  given  to  me  in 
marriage,  and  the  wedding  Vv-as  celebrated  in  our 
house  on  the  4th  of  June,  1469."  But  this  coldness 
was  soon  changed  into  a  lasting  and  perhaps  passion- 
ate affection,  for  on  the  22d  of  July  the  same  year 
he  writes  to  her  from  Milan,  ^^  I  am  doing  all  I  can 
to  hasten  my  return.  It  seems  as  though  we  had 
been  separated  a  thousand  years." 

Clarice  bore  him  four  daughters  and  three  sons  : 
Peter,  born  in  1471  ;  John,  in  1475  *,  and  Jidian,  in 
1478.  Their  education  was  confided  to  the  famous 
Politian,  to  whom  he  gave  a  very  handsome  villa  at 
Fiesole.  The  last  named,  in  his  correspondence, 
gives  a  flattering  description  of  this  residence,  and 
in  writing  to  Marcilio  Ficino,  who  was  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill  with  Lorenzo  at  Careggi,  he  asks  him  to 
come  up  to  Fiesole,  and  as  an  inducement  says  that 
he  can  give  him  some  capital  wine  from  his  own  vine- 
yard. 

Clarice  Orsini  died  so  suddenly  in  1488  that  Lorenzo 
■was  prevented  from  being  present  when  she  drew  her 


THE  MEDICI.  67 

last  breath,  but  he  seems  to  have  felt  her  loss  very 
much.  Less  fortunate  in  his  own  affairs  than  in 
})uljlie  life,  Lorenzo,  far  from  increasing  his  fortune, 
lost  a  great  part  of  it.  In  the  first  place,  he  acquired 
the  surname  of  ^lagnifico  from  the  profusion  with 
which  he  spent  money  for  the  encouragement  of  art 
and  architecture  ;  and  though  his  ministers  and  stew- 
ards ought,  by  the  exercise  of  care,  to  have  made 
good  his  losses,  they  only  widened  the  breach,  and 
the  time  came  when  Florence,  out  of  gratitude  to  the 
most  illustrious  of  her  children,  was  obliged  to  assist 
him.  Lorenzo  then  made  a  thorough  change  in  the 
conduct  of  his  affairs,  and  instead  of  investing  what 
little  remained  to  him  in  commercial  speculations,  he 
purchased  land  and  founded  agricultural  colonies  in 
the  districts  of  Prato,  Pisa,  and  Val  di  Pesa,  which 
brought  in  a  more  certain  income  than  that  derived 
from  commerce.  In  1480  Lorenzo  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  Council  in  which  the  absolute  power 
of  the  Commonwealth  was  concentrated.  It  was 
composed  of  seventy  citizens  appointed  for  life  and 
all  completely  under  his  influence,  so  that  from  hence- 
forth he  held  undisputed  sway  over  Florence. 

I  have  said  nothing  about  the  most  formidable, 
though  not  the  only  conspiracy  hatched  against  him 
— that  of  the  Pazzi,  which  broke  out  on  the  2Gth  of 
April,  1478,  in  the  church  of  Santa  ]\Iaria  del  Fiore, 
and  cost  his  brother  Giuliano  his  life.  Battista  Fres- 
cobaldi  likewise  made  an  attempt  on  his  life  in  the 


/ 


58  FLORENCE. 

Carmine  Church ;  and  Baldmetto  da  Pistoia  tried  to 
assassinate  him  in  a  villa  outside  of  Florence. 
Lorenzo  was  once  wounded,  but  the  would-be  assassins 
all  paid  the  penalty  of  their  crimes. 

He  was,  however,  such  a  suiFerer  from  gout,  that 
at  the  age  of  forty  his  health  broke  down,  and  he 
lived  but  a  few  years  longer.  Politian,  describing 
his  last  moments,  says  that  all  the  nerves  were  shat- 
tered, and  that  the  seat  of  the  mischief  was  in  the 
intestines.  Lorenzo  was  taken  ill  at  Florence,  but  he 
had  himself  carried  to  the  Careggi  villa,  where  all  his 
friends  gathered  about  him  and  entertained  him  with 
their  clever  talk. 

It  is  said  that  among  the  last  visitors  to  his  bedside 
was  one  whose  name  was  already  becoming  famous 
throuahout  Italv.  This  was  Girolamo  Savonarola  ; 
and  there  are  two  very  opposite  accounts — one  by 
Burlamachi  and  the  other  by  Politian — of  what  passed 
at  the  interview  between  Lorenzo  and  the  fierce 
monk.  Burlamachi  asserts  that  Lorenzo  humbly 
asked  the  father's  absolution  for  three  faults  for 
which  he  felt  great  remorse. 

The  first  was  the  sack  of  Volterra,  whose  women 
and  children  were  cruelly  used  by  the  soldiers,  for 
which  he  was  responsible,  as  he  had  promised  that 
their  lives  should  be  spared.  The  second  was  his 
having  appropriated  the  marriage  portions  of  the 
young  girls,  to  which  act  must  be  ascribed  the  going 
astiay  of  many  women  who  were  thus  thrown  with- 


THE  MEDICL  69 

out  resource  on  the  world.  The  third  fault  was  the 
reprisals  made  after  the  Pazzi  conspiracy^  by  which 
many  innocent  persons  were  put  to  death. 

Savonarola  reminded  the  dying  man  of  the  in- 
exhaustible mercy  of  God,  but  insisted  upon  his 
making  amends  for  each  of  these  faults  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  which  Lorenzo  agreed.  Before  leaving, 
however,  he  declared  that  in  order  to  obtain  the 
divine  favor,  Lorenzo  must  restore  to  Florence  her 
lost  liberty  and  re-establish  popular  government ; 
whereupon,  according  to  Burlamachi,  the  sick  man 
turned  over  on  his  bed  and  refused  to  hear  anv 
more. 

Politian's  account  is  verv  different.  Accordins:  to 
him,  Lorenzo,  feeling  his  end  to  be  near,  sent  for  a 
priest  and  confessed  to  him.  The  priest — who  had 
been  sent  for,  instead  of  coming  of  his  own  accord, 
as  Burlamachi  asserts — said,  on  leaving  the  sick 
chamber,  that  he  had  never  seen  a  dying  man  show 
so  much  courage,  presence  of  mind,  and  clearness  of 
intellect.  At  nightfall  the  holy  sacrament  was 
brought,  and  Lorenzo  rose  to  receive  it ;  having 
taken  it  on  his  knees,  he  went  back  to  bed  and  spoke 
a  few  words  of  encouragement  to  his  son  Piero,  who 
was  the  only  person  with  him.  One  Piero  Leori,  a 
celebrated  doctor  of  that  day,  Avho  had  been  sent  for 
at  the  last  moment,  came  in  just  afterwards,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Politian,  asked  for  some  precious  stones, 
which  he  wanted  to  pulverize  and  mix  with  a  potion. 


60  •  FLORENCE. 

Politian  admmistered  the  medicine,  and  Lorenzo, 
recognizing  his  voice,  said,  '^  What,  is  that  you,  dear 
Angiolo  I"  pressing  him  to  his  bosom.  Pohtian  was 
obliged  to  go  out  of  the  room  to  give  free  course  to 
his  grief,  and  on  his  return  Lorenzo  again  noticed 
him  and  asked  after  Pico  della  Mirandola.  He  in- 
sisted on  liis  being  sent  for,  and  Lorenzo,  clasping 
him  to  his  breast,  declared  that  he  should  ^'  die  happier 
for  having  seen  such  a  dear  friend.  I  only  wish  that 
I  could  have  lived  to  complete  our  library."  Savon- 
arola then  came  in,  and  Politian  makes  no  allusion  to 
any  recriminations,  speaking  of  the  monk  as  if  he 
had  been  gentle  and  forbearing,  and  saying  that  when 
he  left  he  gave  them  all  his  benediction.*  The  room 
gradually  became  crowded,  and  while  all  the  others 
Avere  overcome  Lorenzo  remained  perfectly  calm. 
When  his  medicine  was  administered,  and  he  was 
asked  if  it  was  pleasant  to  the  taste,  he  replied,  "  As 
pleasant  as  anything  can  be  to  a  dying  man."  He 
died  with  his  eyes  fastened  on  the  crucifix,  and  Poli- 
tian speaks  in  glowing  terms  of  his  liberality  and 
magnificence,  of  his  constancy  in  adversity,  and  of 
his  modesty  in  good  fortune. 

*  Even  Politian  does  not  say,  however,  that  Savonarola  pro- 
nounced absolution.  Prof,  Pasqnale  Yillari  considers  that  the 
account  given  by  Biirlamachi  is  the  true  one,  and  cites  a  number 
of  authorities  in  support  of  this  opinion.  See  "  Hist,  of  Giro- 
lamo  Savonarola  and  of  His  Times."  By  Pasqnale  Yillari. 
Book  I.,  Ch.  IX.     Note. 


The  Duomo,  Cathedral  ot  S.  Maria  del  Fiore, 
Scene  of  the  Pazzi  Conspiracy. 


THE  MEDICI.  61 

GIULIANO  DE'  MEDICI. 
(1453-1478.) 

THE  PAZZI  CONSPIRACY. 

Assassinated  in  cold  blood  at  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore 
when  only  five-and-twenty ,  Giuliano  was^  like  Lorenzo, 
a  son  of  Piero  il  Gottoso  ;  and  he,  too,  was  born  to 
command.  Like  all  who  die  young,  he  leaves  behind 
him  kindly  recollections,  and  Politian  gives  the  follow- 
ing sketch  of  him  :  "  He  was  tall,  with  broad  shoul- 
ders, a  well-developed  chest,  strong,  muscular ;  Avell 
built  on  his  legs^  and  endowed  with  more  physical 
power  than  a  man  can  need.  His  eyes  were  a  deep 
black,  his  complexion  very  dark,  like  his  hair,  which 
he  wore  brushed  back  from  the  temples.  A  fine 
horseman  and  a  good  shot,  he  was  also  an  adept  at 
gymnastics  and  all  kinds  of  games,  while,  in  gratify- 
ing his  fondness  for  the  chase,  he  did  not  know  what 
fatigue  and  hunger  meant.  He  was  high-minded  and 
firm  in  his  judgment,  with  an  instinctive  fondness  for 
all  that  was  elegant,  and  a  decided  taste  for  poetry. 
He  has  left  behind  a  few  verses  in  the  vulgar  tongue 
on  grave  subjects,  but  light  literature  formed  his 
favorite  reading.  Very  ready-witted,  extremely  ur- 
bane, and  with  an  unmitigated  contempt  for  false- 
hood, he  did  not  readily  forget  an  injury.  He  was 
particular  as  to  his  dress,  but  not  to  the  extent  of 
being  a  fop.  He  had  a  manly  carriage,  and,  while 
full  of  respect  for  his  elders,  was  very  considerate  to 


62  FLOEENCE. 

those  beneath  liim.  All  these  qualities  made  him  a 
general  favorite,  and  his  death  was  looked  upon  as  a 
public  calamity." 

It  is  said  that  some  days  after  the  conspiracy  which 
put  an  end  to  his  life,  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends, 
Antonio  de  San  Gallo,  went  to  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent, and  made  a  confession  to  him.  Giuliano  had 
formed  a  liaison  with  a  young  girl  of  the  Gorini  family, 
by  whom  he  had  had  a  son.  Lorenzo,  after  having 
received  his  evidence  and  ascertained  the  truth  of  it, 
took  this  child  under  his  care,  and  lie  afterwards  be- 
came Pope  Clement  YIL  There  is  not  in  the  whole 
history  of  Florence  a  more  dramatic  episode  than 
that  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  '^  the  Conspiracy 
of  the  Pazzi."  We  have  two  contemporary  narra- 
tives which  are  historic  landmarks  :  one  in  Latin, 
written  by  Angelo  Politian,  the  other  in  the  vulgar 
tongue  by  Machiavelli.  Dandolo,  in  his  splendid 
essays  on  ''  Florence  down  to  the  Fall  of  the  Repub- 
lic," declares  that  Machiavelli's  narrative  is  spoilt  by 
the  tone  of  spite  that  underruns  it  all,  Avhilst  Politian's, 
on  the  other  hand,  bears  the  impress  of  favoritism. 
In  Machiavelli  the  facts  are  perhaps  more  clearly  set 
forth,  and  he  it  is  whom  I  have  taken  for  my  au- 
thority. I  now  give  the  true  causes  of  the  conspiracy, 
according  to  Machiavelli,  which,  in  1478,  nearly  cost 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici  his  life.  Pope  Sixtus  IV.,  angry 
with  the  Medici  for  the  assistance  they  had  lent  to 
Nicolo  Yitehi  and  other  barons  of  the  Romagna,  had 


THE  MEDICI.  63 

taken  from  Lorenzo  the  charge  of  the  treasure  of  the 
Holy  See  in  order  to  invest  it  in  the  hands  of  a  cer- 
tain Pazzi,  a  man  of  a  noVjle  Plorentine  family,  of 
good  position,  and  owner  of  a  bank  at  Rome.  This 
Pazzi  was  the  last  survivor  of  three  brothers  who 
had  left  children.  One — Guglielmo — had  espoused 
Bianca,  the  sister  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici ;  Francesco, 
the  other  nephew,  had  for  some  years  lived  at  Rome  ; 
while  Giovanni,  the  third,  had  chosen  as  his  wife  the 
daughter  of  Buonromei,  a  man  of  immense  wealth, 
of  whom  she  was  the  sole  heiress.  All  this  fortune 
would  then  in  the  course  of  things  come  to  Giovanni's 
wife,  but  a  relative  appearing  upon  the  scene  claimed 
a  share  of  the  property. 

A  lawsuit  followed,  and  the  daughter  of  Buonromei 
lost  all  that  she  had  inherited  from  her  father ;  and 
the  Pazzi  detected  in  this  decision  the  influence  of 
the  Medici,  Giuliano  himself  expressing  to  his  brother 
Lorenzo  the  fear  that  by  grasping  at  too  much  they 
would  lose  all.  Lorenzo,  however  (avc  must  remember 
that  it  is  Machiavelli  who  is  speaking),  elated  with 
youth  and  power,  imagined  that  he  might  do  what 
he  pleased ;  Avhile  the  Pazzi,  on  the  other  hand, 
strong  in  the  j^ossession  of  Avealth  and  a  high  social 
position,  were  fully  determined  not  to  put  up  with  so 
gross  an  injustice,  and  souglit  means  for  a  speedy 
vengeance.  The  first  to  act  in  the  matter  was 
Francesco,  by  far  the  most  energetic  and  sensitive 
member   of  the   familv.     He   declared  that  he   was 


64  FLORENCE. 

determined  to  recover  that  which  he  had  ah-eady  lost 
or  else  to  lose  all.  He  passed  nearly  all  his  time  at 
Rome,  out  of  hatred  to  the  Florentine  Government, 
and  Avhilst  there  contracted  a  close  alliance  Avith 
Girolamo,  Count  of  Riaro,  the  Pope's  nei^hew.  They 
interchanged  confidences  on  the  subject  of  their 
mutual  animosity  against  the  Medici,  till  they  began 
to  conspire  and  think  out  by  what  means  they  coidd 
change  the  form  of  government.  The  conclusion 
they  arrived  at  was  dramatic :  the  death  of  Giuliano 
and  Lorenzo  alone  would  enable  them  to  arrive  at 
their  end.  They  did  not  doubt  but  that  the  Holy 
Father  Avould  lend  his  aid,  provided,  however,  it  was 
made  clear  to  him  that  the  end  was  well  defined  and 
easy  of  accomplishment.  They  next  confided  their 
scheme  to  Francesco  Salviati,  Archbishop  of  Pisa,  an 
ambitious  prelate,  who  had  suftered  much  at  the 
hands  of  the  Medici  family.  Salviati  readily  joined 
the  conspiracy  ;  but  they  had  a  far  more  difficult  task 
in  enlisting  the  services  of  Jacopo  di  Pazzi.  This  Avas, 
hoAvever,  finally  accomplished,  and  another  Jacopo, 
son  of  the  celebrated  Poggio,  tAvo  others  of  the  Sal- 
viati— the  one  a  brother  and  the  other  a  connection 
of  the  Archbishop,  Bernardo  Bandini,  and  Napoleone 
Franzesi,  energetic,  young,  courageous,  and  devoted 
to  the  Pazzi,  joined,  as  also  did  GioA^anni  Battista  da 
Montesecco,  Condottiere  in  the  Papal  serA'ice,  together 
Avith  Antonio  da  Volterra  and  a  priest  named  Stefano. 
Rinato  de'  Pazzi,  an  able  and  thoughtfid  man,  Avho 


THE  MEDICI.  65 

foresaw  tlic  dangers  of  such  an  enterprise,  refused  to 
listen,  and  did  dll  lie  could  to  dissuade  tlieni  from 
their  project.  The  Pope  had  ])laced  Eaffaelo  Riario, 
a  nephew  of  Count  Girolamo,  at  the  college  of  Pisa, 
and  Avhilst  there  he  Avas  promoted  to  the  Cardinalate. 
The  conspirators  invited  the  Cardinal  to  come  to 
Florence,  with  the  idea  that  his  arrival  would  serve 
as  a  screen  to  the  execution  of  their  project.  The 
Cardinal  did  in  fact  arrive,  and  was  received  by 
Jacopo  de'  Pazzi.  The  first  suggestion  was  to  get 
rid  of  the  ]Medici  during  the  visit  that  they  would  no 
doubt  pay  to  the  illustrious  stranger,  but  they  failed 
to  put  in  an  appearance.  It  Avas  next  proposed  to 
give  a  banquet  on  Sunday,  April  26,  1478,  and  assas- 
sinate the  two  brothers  at  table,  but  hearing  that  they 
would  not  be  there,  another  plan  had  to  be  hastily 
substituted.  They  would  kill  them  even  in  the 
cathedral,  where  they  could  hardly  fail  to  be  present 
at  divine  service  on  the  occasion  of  the  attendance  of 
Piario.  Lorenzo  was  assigned  to  Montesecco,  Avhile 
Francesco  de'  Pazzi  and  Bernardo  Bandini  were  to 
attack  Giuliano.  Montesecco,  however,  rejected  this 
arrangement  at  once,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not 
sufficient  courage  to  commit  so  great  an  act  of  sacri- 
lege in  a  church.  This  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
failure  of  the  enterprise.  There  was  no  time  to  lose, 
and  there  was  no  other  course  than  to  leave  the  busi- 
ness of  assassinating  Lorenzo  to  Antonio  da  Volterra 
and  the  priest   Stefano,  both   equally  incapable  and 

5 


6Q  FLORENCE. 

spiritless  men.  This  decision  once  arrived  at,  the 
moment  of  the  elevation  of  the  Host  was  fixed  on 
as  the  si^ial. 

After  the  death  of  the  Medici  the  Archbishop  and 
Poggio  were  to  occupy  the  palace,  where  the  Signoria, 
either  of  their  own  free-will  or  by  force,  were  ex- 
pected to  give  in  their  adherence  to  the  conspirators. 
The  hour  has  arrived ;  Ave  are  in  the  temple  with 
the  thronging  multitude.  The  divine  service  has 
commenced,  but  Giuliano  is  not  here.  Francesco  and 
Bernardo,  who  are  to  assassinate  him,  go  to  his  house 
in  search  of  him.  How  deeply  must  their  murderous 
intention  have  smik  into  their  minds  Avhen  they  coidd 
go  and  seek  out  their  victim  in  his  own  palace,  and 
bring  him  to  the  place  of  execution !  It  is  even  said  that 
Francesco,  feigning  symptoms  of  the  greatest  aifec- 
tion,  felt  his  enemy  in  order  to  make  sure  that  he  did 
not  wear  a  coat  of  mail.  At  the  church  they  took  up 
their  positions  on  the  right  and  left  of  Giuliano,  and 
when  the  moment  arrived  Bandini,  Avith  one  vigorous 
blow,  ran  him  through  the  breast.  The  victim  only 
made  a  few  steps  forward,  and  then  fell  dead.  Fran- 
cesco threw  himself  on  the  body,  and  striking  blindly 
and  madly,  inflicted  on  himself  a  deep  wound.  From 
the  other  side  Antonio  and  Stefano  attacked  Lorenzo. 
They  only  succeeded,  however,  in  inflicting  a  slight 
wound  in  the  neck.  He  defended  himself  with  vigor, 
assisted  by  those  who  surrounded  him.  Bandini, 
however,  with  his  knife  stained  with  Giuliano's  blood, 


THE  MEDICI.  G7 

then  turned  his  weapon  against  Lorenzo,  and  finding 
Francesco  Nori,  a  creature  of  the  Medici,  in  liis  way, 
felled  him  Avith  one  blow.  On  this  the  partisans  of 
the  Medici  surrounded  Lorenzo  and  hurried  him  into 
the  sacristy,  when  Poligiano  closed  the  bronze  doors. 
As  it  was  thought  probable  that  Stefano's  blade  had 
been  poisoned,  a  young  man  in  the  sacristy  itself 
offered  to  suck  Lorenzo's  wound.  A  general  terror 
and  consternation  prevailed  in  the  church.  As  soon 
as  the  news  spread  through  the  city,  the  citizens 
came  in  arms  to  escort  Lorenzo  to  his  palace,  avoid- 
ing the  route  taken  by  those  who  were  carrying  his 
brother's  corpse.  Salviati,  however,  accompanied  by 
a  band  of  thirty,  had  already  arrived  to  occupy  the 
palace,  and,  leaving  most  of  his  companions  in  the 
antechamber,  entered  the  hall  where  the  Gonfaloniere 
was  sitting.  But  his  expression  and  agitated  manner 
at  once  aroused  the  magistrate's  suspicion,  and  the 
latter,  rushing  from  the  hall,  encountered  Poggio, 
whom  he  seized  by  the  hair  and  put  under  arrest. 
Those  present  protesting,  their  arms  were  taken 
away,  and  all  those  who  had  accompanied  Salviati 
upstairs  were  either  killed  or  thrown  out  of  the  Avin- 
dows.  The  Archbishop,  the  two  Salviati,  and  Poggio 
were  hung.  The  others,  who  had  remained  below, 
had  forced  the  guard  and  installed  themselves  in  the 
groimd-floor,  so  that  the  citizens  who  had  congregated 
at  the  sound  of  such  an  uproar  could  afford  no  aid  to 
the   Signoria.      Meanwhile  Francesco  de'   Pazzi  and 


68  FLORE^X^E. 

Bandini  had  had  time  to  consider  matters,  and  seeing 
the  failure  of  tlie  plot,  the  latter  took  to  flight, 
whilst  the  former  was  for  making  one  last  effort. 
Wounded  though  he  was,  he  jet  mounted  his  horse 
and  tried  to  rally  the  people  to  him  in  the  name  of 
liberty  ;  but  the  blood  he  had  lost  soon  rendered  him 
incapable  of  action.  He  was  compelled  to  lie  down 
on  a  couch,  bidding  Jacopo  take  his  place.  Aged 
and  feeble  as  the  latter  was,  he  mounted  his  horse  to 
make  a  last  attempt,  and  entering  the  square,  sum- 
moned the  people  to  his  aid  in  the  name  of  liberty — 
a  word  that  had  long  since  become  meaningless  in 
Florence.  No  one  joined  him,  and  the  only  answer 
to  his  appeal  was  a  shower  of  stones  from  the  Signoria, 
confined  in  the  upper  story  of  the  palace.  Jacopo 
was  now  in  despair,  and  seeing  that  the  people  were 
opposed  to  him,  that  Lorenzo  was  alive,  Francesco 
wounded,  and  the  attempt  hopelessly  frustrated,  he 
tried  to  save  his  own  life.  Followed  by  a  few  men, 
he  escaped  from  Florence  in  the  direction  of  the 
Romagna. 

Meanwhile  the  Avhole  town  had  flown  to  arms. 
The  old  palace  was  soon  retaken,  and  nearly  all  the 
conspirators  were  captured  or  put  to  death.  Fran- 
cesco was  dragged  naked  from  his  bed,  and  hung  by 
the  feet  alongside  the  Archbishop.  The  only  one  of 
the  Pazzi  whose  life  was  spared — and  that  through 
the  intercession  of  his  wife — was  Guglielmo,  the 
brother-in-law   of   Lorenzo.     Rinato,    who    had    re- 


THE  MEDICI.  09 

fused  to  join  in  the  conspiracy^  had  withdrawn  to  his 
villa,  hut  while  attempting  to  escape  in  disguise  was 
discovered  and  hrought  back.  Jacopo  was  arrested 
when  crossing  the  Apennines  Ly  some  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  those  parts,  who,  despite  liis  prayers,  refused 
to  kill  him,  but  conducted  him  back  to  Florence, 
^^•here  he  was  condemned  to  death  in  company  with 
Rinato.  Four  days  later  his  body  was  taken  from 
the  family  vault  in  which  it  had  been  buried  and 
thrown  into  a  ditch  outside  the  city  walls  ;  from  thence 
it  was  disinterred  afresh,  dragged  through  the  city, 
and  thrown  into  the  Arno. 

He  was  a  man  of  vicious  habits,  but  his  charitable 
deeds  had  made  him  very  popular.  On  the  Saturday 
before  the  conspiracy  he  paid  all  his  debts,  settled  his 
accounts,  and  took  care  that  no  claim  should  be  left 
outstanding.  Montesecco  Avas  beheaded,  and  Napo- 
leone  Francesci  only  escaped  the  same  fate  by  flight. 
Bandini  never  halted  till  he  had  crossed  the  frontier 
into  the  Turkish  states,  but  the  Sultan  handed  him 
over  to  the  Florentines,  who  put  him  to  death  in  the 
folloAving  year.  Guglielmo  de'  Pazzi  was  banished, 
and  his  cousins  imprisoned  for  life  in  the  tower  of 
Volterra.  When  all  the  conspirators  had  been  tried 
the  obsequies  of  Giuliano  were  celebrated  with  great 
pomp.  He  left  a  natural  son  named  Giulio,  for  whom, 
as  Pope  Clement  VH.,  the  highest  honors  and  the 
deepest  calamities  were  in  store. 

To  perpetuate  the  recollection  of  this  event  Botti- 


70  FLORENCE. 

celli  was  commissioned  to  paint  the  effigies  of  all  the 
conspirators  upon  the  fagade  of  the  palace  of  the 
Podesta^  now  called  the  Bargello,  which  faces  on  Via 
Ghibellina^  just  as  the  enemies  of  Cosimo  the  Elder, 
grandfather  of  Lorenzo  and  GiulianOj  had  been  repre- 
sented there  by  Andrea  del  Castagno,  hmig  by  their 
feet,  a  circumstance  to  which  the  painter  owed  his 
nickname  of  ^^  Andrea  degli  Impiccati "  (Andrea  of 
the  hanged  men).  This  extraordinary  painting,  which 
would  be  of  priceless  value  now,  was  destroyed  in 
the  course  of  the  many  restorations  of  the  Bargello. 
Orsini,  a  skilful  modeller  in  wax,  made,  with  the  help 
of  Ycrrocchio,  three  life-size  figures,  representing 
Lorenzo  defending  himself  against  his  assassins,  but 
they,  too,  have  disappeared. 

We  possess,  however,  a  medallion  by  that  gifted 
artist  Antonio  Pollaiulo,  representing  on  one  side  the 
murder  of  Giuliano,  with  the  choir  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Fiore  at  the  moment  of  the  elevation  of  the  Host,  and 
the  profile  of  the  victim  with  his  name,  JvLiANVS 
Medices,  and  the  inscription  LvCTVS  Pvblicvs,  while 
on  the  reverse  is  the  same  choir,  and  in  the  fore- 
ground Lorenzo  escaping  from  the  daggers  of  the 
assassins,  and  above  the  profile  of  Lorenzo,  with  his 
name,    Lavrentivs    Medices,    and    the    inscription 

SaLVS  P\T5LICA. 

This  is  the  more  interesting  historically  as  show- 
ing what,  in  the  time  of  Cosimo  the  Elder  and  Lorenzo, 
was  the  shape  of  the  original  choir  built  by  Arnolfo. 


Staircase  in  the  Courtyard  of  the  Bargello  or  Palazzo 
del  Podesta. 


.•K^CT'LajaMfc. 


^ 


THE  MEDICI.  71 

THE  THREE  SONS  OF  LORENZO  THE  MAGNIFICENT 
AND  THE  RETURN  OF  THE  MEDICI. 

PiETRO  Giovanni  Giuliano  II. 

(1471-1503).  (1475-1521).  (1478-151G). 

Having  consolidated  his  fortune  hy  attention  to 
agriculture,  Lorenzo  left  his  son  Pietro  in  a  very 
comfortable  position,  but  the  latter  soon  embarked 
upon  a  career  of  pleasure  and  took  little  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  State.  At  the  same  time  he  was  rather 
despotic  in  his  views,  and  attempted  to  govern  inde- 
pendently of  the  Signoria. 

The  death  of  Lorenzo  had  placed  Ludovico  Sforza, 
uncle  of  the  nominally  reigning  Duke  of  ^lilan,  in  a 
very  precarious  position ;  he  accordingly  invited  King 
Charles  VIII.  of  France  to  interfere  in  Italian  affairs, 
and  the  latter,  entering  Lombardy  with  upwards  of 
thirty  thousand  soldiers,  advanced  upon  the  Tuscan 
frontier.  Pietro  de'  Medici,  remembering  the  bril- 
liant part  played  by  his  grandfather  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, imagined  that  he  could  achieve  a  like 
success,  and  accordingly,  without  consulting  the  Sig- 
noria, set  forth,  a  self-appointed  ambassador,  to  the 
French  camp.  Charles  received  him  with  much 
courtesy,  but  asked  for  some  guarantee  of  his  good 
ffiith,  v.diereupon  the  weak-minded  Pietro  actuallv 
ceded  to  him  the  fortresses  of  Sarzana,  Sarzanello, 
Pietra  Santa,  Leghorn,  Librafatta,  and  Pisa. 

Great  was  the  indignation  in  Florence  when  this 
ignoble   transaction  became   known.      The   Signoria 


7:^  FLORENCE. 

made  no  attempt  to  disguise  tlieir  displeasure,  while 
the  people  assembled  beneath  the  balconies  of  the 
Medici  Palace  uttering  loud  complaints  and  threats. 
An  accredited  embassy,  headed  hy  Savonarola^  was 
at  once  dispatched  to  Charles's  camp,  but  even  the 
eloquence  of  the  fiery  monk  could  not  avail  to  imdo 
the  mischief.  On  their  return  to  Florence  Piero 
Capponi  induced  the  people  to  rise  in  revolt  against 
the  Medician  tyranny.  Pietro  took  flight,  going  first 
to  Bologna,  where  Bentivoglio  accorded  him  a  very 
cool  Avelcome,  and  from  thence  to  Venice,  where,  his 
reception  being  likewise  far  from  friendly,  he  deemed 
it  safer  to  withdraw  for  a  time  at  least,  from  society 
and  lead  as  retired  a  life  as  possible. 

On  the  17th  of  Xovember,  1494,  the  King  entered 
Florence  and  took  up  his  residence  in  the  Medician 
palace.  Negotiations  were  now  opened,  but  Charles 
found  his  haughty  demands  resisted  with  so  much 
spirit  and  determination  by  Capponi  and  Savonarola 
that  he  judged  it  more  prudent  to  modify  them.  An 
agreement  was  finally  reached  by  which  Florence 
undertook  to  pay  a  fine  of  120,000  gold  florins, 
50,000  to  be  paid  at  once  and  the  remaining  70,000 
at  an  early  date  ;  and  shortly  afterwards  the  King 
withdrew  with  his  forces. 

It  Avas  upon  this  occasion  that  the  Medici  Palace 
was  first  sacked,  the  splendid  collections  formed  by 
Cosimo,  and  added  to  by  Piero  and  Lorenzo,  being 
either  destroved  or  stolen. 


THE  MEDICI.  73 

After  the  departure  of  the  French,  Florence  busied 
herself  m  establishing  a  new  government,  which, 
under  the  advice  of  Savonarola,  took  the  form  of  a  great 
comicil,  composed  of  a  thousand  or  more  citizens. 

The  years  that  followed  were  stormy  ones ;  the 
city  was  torn  by  factions,  the  rival  parties  only  unit- 
ing in  a  common  desire  to  regain  possession  of  Pisa. 
In  1497  Pietro  de'  Medici  made  an  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt to  enter  the  city  with  an  armed  following.  He 
subsequently  took  service  under  Louis  XIL,  and  was 
dro^\med  by  the  upsetting  of  a  boat  loaded  with  artil- 
lery on  the  river  Garigliano,  together  with  some  of 
the  King's  suite.  He  was  only  thirty-two  years  of  age, 
and  his  wretched  existence  and  miserable  end  are  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  life  and  death  of  his  father. 

By  the  year  1502  affairs  had  reached  such  a  pass 
in  Florence  that  it  was  felt  by  all  that  some  change 
was  imperatively  demanded,  and  in  August  of  that 
year  Pietro  Soderini  was  appointed  to  the  office  of 
Gonfaloniere  for  life  instead  of  two  months,  the  usual 
term,  his  unblemished  character  and  the  fact  of  his 
having  no  children  to  awaken  ambitious  designs  in 
his  breast,  being  the  reasons  adduced  for  bestowmg 
this  important  office  upon  him. 

But  that  warlike  Pontiff,  Julius  II.,  had  other  viev.s 
for  Florence,  and  exasperated  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  Republic  had  Avithheld  any  active  assistance  in 
his  war  Avith  the  French,  and  her  refusal  to  depose 
Soderini  and  reinstate  the  Medici,  he  now  determined 


74  FLOEENCE. 

to  accomplish  his  ends  by  force.  On  the  21st  of 
August,  1512,  the  alarming  news  reached  Florence 
that  the  Viceroy  Raymond  de  Cordova  was  advanc- 
ing with  a  large  army,  and  accompanied  by  the 
Medici.  On  the  29th  he  took  Prato  by  assaidt,  and 
there  was  a  renewal  of  all  the  horrors  of  Brescia. 
News  of  this  disaster  reached  Florence  in  the  middle 
of  the  night.  Soderini  fled,  an  act  that  has  been 
stigmatized  by  Machiavelli  in  four  well-known  lines. 
Ambassadors  were  dispatched  to  treat  with  the  Vice- 
roy and  Cardinal  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  and  an  agree- 
ment was  entered  into  that  Florence  should  pay  a 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  ducats  and  admit  the 
Medici  ^^  as  private  citizens  " — an  airy  subterfuge 
that  probably  deceived  no  one.  By  the  middle  of 
September  Giuliano  had  assumed  the  conduct  of 
affairs  with  as  much  assurance  as  though  the  right  to 
govern  were  hereditary  and  Florence  a  fief  of  the 
Medici  family,  though  he  so  far  kept  up  an  appear- 
ance of  popular  government  as  to  go  through  the 
form  of  consulting  the  Balia,  a  council  formed  of 
forty-eight  citizens,  almost  all  of  them  creatures  or 
clients  of  his  own. 

On  the  death  of  Julius  II.  Giovanni  de'  Medici 
w^s  elected  Pope  under  the  title  of  Leo  X.,  and 
Giuliano  removed  to  Rome,  where  he  was  made  Gon- 
faloniere  of  the  Church  and  Captain-General  of  the 
Papal  forces,  leaving  his  nephew^  Lorenzo,  son  of 
Pietro,  to  govern  Florence. 


THE  MEDICI.  75 

Giuliano  de'  Medici  had  married,  a  year  before  liis 
death,  PhiHberta,  the  sister  of  PhiUbert  and  Charles, 
Dukes  of  Savoy,  but  he  left  no  issue  by  her,  though 
he  Avas  known  to  have  had  one  illegitimate  son,  Car- 
dinal Hippolytus,  of  whom  several  portraits  by  Titian 
are  still  extant. 

Giuliano  had  received  from  Francois  I.  the  ducliy 
of  Nemours,  which  at  his  death  reverted  to  the  French 
crown.  He  was  not  an  unworthy  representative  of 
the  Medici  as  regarded  cidtivation  and  intellect,  and 
when  in  exile  at  the  Court  of  Urbino  he  availed  him- 
self of  the  opportunity  to  establish  an  intimacy  with 
the  brilliant  residents  in  the  Montefeltro  capital.  The 
celebrated  Cardinal  Bembo  introduces  him  as  one  of 
the  speakers  in  his  dialogues  on  the  idiom  of  Tus- 
cany. He  died  of  fever,  only  seven-and-twenty 
years  of  age,  on  the  17th  of  May,  1516,  in  the  abbey 
of  the  canons  of  Fiesole,  which  was  built  by  his  an- 
cestor, and  to  which  he  asked  to  be  carried  when 
taken  ill.  His  remains  rest  in  the  new  sacristy  of 
San  Lorenzo,  and  he  has  been  immortalized  in  mar- 
ble by  one  of  Michael  Angelo's  greatest  works. 

LOKEXZO  11.,  DUKE  OF  URBIXO. 

(1492-1519.) 

Pietro,  drowned,  as  mentioned  above,  in  the  Garig- 
hano,  had  married  Alfonsina  di  Roberto  Orsini,  and 
left  a  son  named  Lorenzo,  who  is  known  in  history 
by  the  title  of  Duke  of  Urbino,  but  he,  like  his  uncle 


76  FLOEENCE. 

Giullano  and  most  of  the  Medici  family,  died  very 
yomig,  being  only  seven-and-twenty.  It  has  already 
been  said  that  Giovanni,  brother  of  Pietro,  and  a  son, 
like  him,  of  Lorenzo  the  ]Magnificent,  had  been  elected 
Pope  with  the  title  of  Leo  X.,  and  it  was  he  who  car- 
ried the  cultivated  tastes  and  the  splendor  of  his  family 
to  Pome,  and  who  gave  his  name  to  the  century  in 
which  he  lived,  as  his  ancestors  had  in  their  day  done 
in  Tuscany.  While  he  strengthened  the  influence  of 
his  family  at  Florence,  Leo  X.  made  Rome  the  centre 
of  Italian  politics.  Having  seized  the  duchy  of  L"r- 
bino,  he  invested  the  sovereignty  of  it  in  his  nephew 
Lorenzo  by  a  Papal  Bidl.  This  nephew  Avas  not  de- 
ficient in  courage  nor  in  spii'it,  but  his  overweening 
pride  and  arrogance  had  excited  the  ill-will  of  the 
Florentines,  while  his  claim  to  the  throne  Avhich  had 
been  given  him  was  from  the  outlet  disputed  by  Fran- 
cesco della  Rovere,  the  rightfid  prince. 

He  died  young,  leaving  by  his  wife,  Madeleine  Jean 
de  la  Tour,  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Auvergne  and  of 
Boulogne-in-Picardy,  no  male  heir,  but  a  daughter, 
the  sole  legitimate  descendant  besides  the  Pope,  of 
the  elder  branch  of  the  Medici,  who  became  Queen 
of  France.  This  was  Catherine  de'  Medici,  wife  of 
Henri  11.  and  mother  of  three  French  kings  and  of  a 
Queen  of  Spain. 

The  death  of  Lorenzo  without  a  male  heir  led  to  a 
great  revolution  in  the  history  of  Florence.  The 
elder  branch  of  the  Medici  was  practically   extinct. 


THE  MEDICI.  77 

the  two  other  branches  were  very  jealous  of  each 
other,  and  all  the  ambitious  projects  which  Leo 
X.  had  formed  for  liis  family  seemed  destined  to  be 
brought  to  nought.  There  remained,  however,  three 
illegitimate  ]\Iedici  of  the  branch  of  Cosimo  the  Elder. 
First  there  was  Giidio,  the  natural  son  of  Giuliano 
murdered  in  tlie  Pazzi  conspiracy  ;  then  Hippolytus, 
natural  son  of  Giuliano,  Due  de  Nemours ;  and  Alex- 
ander, who  was  a  son  either  of  Lorenzo  II.  or  of 
Giulio. 

All  three  were  destined  to  be  famous,  and  they 
might  all  have  claimed  the  succession,  for  Ave  know 
that  illegitimacy  was  not  regarded  in  the  fifteenth  or 
sixteenth  century  as  a  bar  to  a  throne.  The  first, 
Giulio,  became  Pope  Clement  VII. ;  the  second,  Hip- 
polytus,  rose  to  the  purple  ;  and  Alexander  was  the 
first  Duke  of  Florence. 

It  is  singular  that  Michael  Angelo  should  have  im- 
mortalized by  his  genius  the  two  least  distinguished 
of  the  Medici,  for  while  the  graves  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent  and  Cosimo  the  Elder  are  merely  covered 
with  slabs  upon  which  their  names  are  graven,  the 
Dukes  of  Urbino  and  Nemours  sleep  their  last  sleep 
in  tombs  erected  by  the  great  artist. 

CAEDIXAL  niPPOLYTUS. 
(1511-153.5.) 

Giulio,  Cardinal  de^  Medici,  when  he  became 
Clement    VII.,    instead    of    attempting    to    transfer 


78  FLORENCE. 

power  from  one  branch  of  the  Medici  to  the  other, 
and  to  exchide  the  natural  sons,  followed  the  exam- 
ple of  John  de'  Medici  (Leo  X.),  and  as  he  had  more 
faith  in  the  ability  of  Hippolytus  than  in  that  of  the 
others,  he  selected  him  to  rule  Florence,  appointing 
Silvio  Passerini,  Cardinal  de  Cortona,  to  govern  for 
him  during  his  minority.  Passerini  failed  to  please 
the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Medici  alike.  This 
was  the  period  when  the  French  king,  on  bad  terms 
with  Charles  V.,  claimed  the  inheritance  of  the  duchy 
of  Milan.  Rome  was  threatened  by  Charles  V.,  and 
then  invaded  and  sacked  by  the  Constable  of  Bour- 
bon, Clement  YII.  being  imprisoned  in  his  own  castle 
of  St.  Angelo.  On  the  17th  of  May,  1527,  the  Flor- 
entines expelled  the  Medici  for  the  third  time,  all 
their  property  being  wrecked  and  destroyed.  A 
brief  period  of  liberty  ensued  for  Florence,  but  with 
a  fresh  turn  of  events  Clement  made  peace  with  his 
late  enemies  and  a  league  was  formed  to  reduce  Flor- 
ence and  enforce  the  return  of  the  Medici.  The  city 
was  fortified  by  Michael  Angelo,  and  held  out  for 
nearly  a  year  against  the  imperial  army  under  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  being  finally  forced  to  capitulate 
through  the  treason  of  Malatesta.  Hippolytus,  see- 
ing that  Alexander  was  to  be  preferred  before  him- 
self, made  an  attempt  to  forestall  him  and  gain  pos- 
session of  Florence,  but  his  plan  Avas  frustrated,  and 
he  was  induced  to  return  to  Rome.  He  did  not  live 
long  enough  to  profit  much  by  the  return  of  his  family 


THE  MEDICI.  79 

to  pOAver,  for  he  died  when  only  four-and-twenty,  and 
it  was  surmised  that  Duke  Alexander  had  a  hand  in 
his  death.  Benedetto  Varolii  gives  the  following 
kindly  description  of  him  :  ^'  He  was  handsome  and 
pleasant-looking,  very  well  informed,  full  of  grace 
and  virtue,  and  affable  to  all  men.  He  took  more 
after  the  generous  and  benevolent  disposition  of  Leo 
X.  than  after  the  avaricious  and  narrow-minded 
Clement  VH.  He  liked  to  gather  round  him  men 
distinguished  in  art,  literature,  and  war,  and  he 
treated  them  very  liberally.  Plaving  come  into  an 
income  of  four  thousand  ducats,  he  made  a  present 
of  it  to  Francesco  Maria  Nolza,  a  noble  of  ]\Iodena, 
who  was  very  devoted  to  literature  and  a  great  lin- 
guist.'^ He  was  scarcely  fitted  to  be  a  cardinal,  but 
when  it  was  known  that  Alexander  had  been  selected 
to  assume  power  he  made  up  his  mind  to  follow  the 
traditions  of  Leo  X.,  and  sustained  the  splendor  of 
his  uncle.  He  formed  a  suite,  clad  in  brilliant  armor, 
of  Turks,  Arabians,  Tartars,  and  Indians,  and  got  up 
jousts  and  tournaments.  He  had  been  a  cardinal  for 
three  years  when,  after  the  Turks  had  made  a  raid 
up  to  the  walls  of  Vienna,  he  was  sent  as  legate  to 
the  Emperor  of  Germany.  He  made  his  entry  into 
Vienna  with  all  the  pomp  of  royalty,  and  an  escort 
of  eight  thousand  horsemen,  and  it  was  upon  this 
occasion  that  he  donned  a  military  costume,  and  qow- 
tinned  to  wear  it  after  his  return  home.  It  was  after 
this  that  Charles  V.  had  an  interview  with  the  Pope 


80  FLOKENCE. 

at  Bologna,  bringing  a  Hungarian  escort  witli  him. 
Titian  was  then  at  Bologna,  and  painted  a  portrait  of 
the  Emperor.  He  also  painted  two  portraits  of  Hip- 
polytus,  who  formed  part  of  the  Pope's  suite,  one  in 
a  Hungarian  costume,  and  the  other  in  that  of  an 
Italian  warrior  with  the  delicately  wrought  cuirass. 
Hippolytus  headed  the  party  in  opposition  to  Duke 
Alexander,  and  resented  so  openly  the  accession  to 
power  of  one  whom  he  regarded  as  his  rival  that 
when  he  died  at  Itri  in  1535  it  was  generally  be- 
lieved that  he  had  met  with  foul  play. 

ALEXANDEK  DE'  MEDICI, 

FIRST   DUKE   OF   FLORENCE. 

(1510-1537.) 

This  brings  us  to  the  capture  of  Florence,  which, 
bravely  defended  by  the  citizens,  had  been  betrayed 
by  Malatesta  Baglione.  Feruccio,  the  last  hope  of 
the  Republic,  had  fallen,  and  a  treaty  Avas  made  with 
Gonzaga,  the  able  captain  who  had  succeeded  the 
Prince  of  Orange  in  command  of  the  Imperial  troops. 
The  conditions  of  the  treaty  were  as  follows :  '^  A 
regular  government  to  be  established  within  a  period 
of  four  months,  it  being  always  understood  that  liberty 
was  to  be  preserved ;  the  Medici  to  return,  together 
with  all  who  had  been  exiled  in  their  cause  ;  Florence 
to  pay  a  ransom  of  80,000  gold  crowns." 

Here,  again,  a  pretence  w^as  made  of  respecting  the 
legal  independence  of  the  Florentines.      The  partisans 


THE  MEDICI.  81 

of  Clement  VII.  insisted  upon  the  formation  of  a  coun- 
cil of  twelve  citizens,  and  recognizing  in  Alexander, 
son  of  Lorenzo  of  Urbino,  ^^  high  moral  qualities,  and 
recognizing,  too^  all  the  good  done  bv  his  family,"  he 
was  made  a  member  of  the  Balia,  though  a  special 
clause  excluded  him  from  the  supreme  power.  The 
Emperor,  who  had  determined  to  substitute  a  mon- 
archical for  a  popular  form  of  government,  would  not 
agree  to  this,  and  he  had  Alexander,  to  Avhom  he  in- 
tended to  marry  his  daughter,  proclaimed  chief  of  the 
State,  with  the  title  of  Duke,  with  remainder  to  his 
heirs  male  in  the  direct  line. 

The  celebrated  bell,  ^^  Martinella,"  in  the  ducal 
palace,  which  for  two  centuries  had  called  the  citizens 
to  arms  in  defence  of  their  liberties,  sounded  the  knell 
of  the  Republic  on  the  26th  of  July,  1531,  when 
Alexander  entered  the  city  amid  the  acclamations  of 
his  adherents. 

Even  this  did  not  satisfy  Clement  VII.,  who  was 
anxious  that  his  nephew's  authority  should  extend 
throughout  Tuscany,  and  the  reformers  of  the  State 
which  his  orders  and  will  had  created  changed  the 
basis  of  government,  suppressing  both  the  Signoria 
and  the  (ionfaloniere,  who  was  the  representative  of 
the  people.  All  traces  of  communal  liberties  were  y 
destroyed,  and  Tuscany,  together  with  Florence,  be- 
came for  once  and  all  a  monarchy. 

Alexander  was  a  man  of  considerable  abilities,  with 
the   instincts  of  a  statesman,  a  ready   tongue,  and  a 

6 


82  FLOREXCE. 

good  education.  He  was,  however,  as  we  know  from 
the  historians  of  his  time,  very  dissipated  in  his  habits; 
but  for  all  that  Tuscany  might  have  been  very  happy 
under  his  rule  if  it  had  not  been  that  the  younger 
branch  of  the  Medici  were  conspiring  against  what 
thev  deemed  a  usurpation.  Alexander  had  only  been 
live  years  on  the  throne  when,  on  the  6tli  of  January, 
1536,  Lorenzo,  his  cousin,  a  descendant  of  the  rival 
branch,  who  had  become  his  adviser  as  well  as  his 
companion  in  debauchery,  inveigled  him  to  come  and 
see  him  about  some  love  intrigue,  and  murdered  him 
in  his  bed. 

Duke  Alexander  had  married  Margaret  of  Austria, 
the  natural  daughter  of  Charles  V.,  and  though  he 
had  no  children  by  her,  he  had  adopted  a  boy  and  a 
girl — Giulio  and  Giulia.  He  was  the  last  Medici  of 
the  elder  branch,  and  then  came  the  turn  of  the 
younger  branch,  which  was  first  represented  in  power 
by  Cosimo  I. 

THE  YOUNGER  BRANXH  OF  THE  MEDICI. 

JOHN    DE'    MEDICI,    SURNAMED    OF    ''tHE   BLACK   BAXD," 

The  first  of  the  ]\Iedici,  Giovanni  de  Bicci,  had  left 
two  sons,  Cosimo  surnamed  the  Elder,  and  Lorenzo, 
who  were  the  founders  of  the  family.  Having  given 
above  the  history  of  Cosimo's  branch,  I  may  resume 
that  of  the  younger  branch,  which  was  called  to  power 
in  the  person  of  Cosimo  L,  after  tlie  murder  of 
Alexander  I.,  Duke  of  Florence.     Lorenzo,  brother 


THE  MEDICI.  83 

of  Cosimo,  was  the  father  of  Piero-Francesco  (1431- 
1477),  who  was  also  assassinated ;  and  Francesco 
left  two  sons,  Lorenzo  and  John,  and  each  of  these 
two  in  turn  had  a  son.  Lorenzo's  son  bore  the  name 
of  Lorenzo-Francesco,  and  his  brother's  that  of  John, 
the  latter  being  the  celebrated  '^  John  of  the  Black 
Band,"  who  is  the  first  notable  character  of  the 
younger  branch. 

John  deserves  a  biography,  not  less  for  his  own 
individual  merits  than  for  the  fact  that  he  became 
the  progenitor  of  princes — his  son  Cosimo  becoming 
Cosimo  L,  Lord  of  Florence,  and  later  on  assuming 
the  title  of  Grand  DidvC  of  Tuscany,  founder  of  the 
second  branch  of  this  dynasty.  Though  at  baptism 
he  received  the  name  of  Lodovico,  he  is  known  to 
history  under  the  name  of  John,  later  on  to  become 
the  famous  captain  so  beloved  bv  his  troops. 

His  mother  was  Catherine  Sforza,  daughter  of  the 
famous  Galeazo,  Duke  of  Milan.  His  fiither  died 
young,  and  the  widow,  cherishing  his  memory,  re- 
solved that  in  name  at  least  her  husband  should  live 
again  in  the  person  of  her  son.  This  warrior  of  the 
future  experienced  the  very  pecidiar  fortune  of  being 
brought  up,  till  he  became  a  young  man,  in  female 
garb ;  his  mother,  in  fact,  surrounded  by  the  snares 
and  temptations  of  the  ^ledici,  entertained  many  fears 
for  the  life  of  her  son  and  lieir,  and  took  the  precau- 
tion of  withdrawing  him  from  the  dangers  of  the  world 
by  immuring  him  in  a  convent.      This  young  lady, 


8-4  FLOEEXCE. 

as  she  was  supposed  to  be,  naturally  protested  against 
the  costume  she  was  forced  to  adopt,  and  her  dreams 
were  of  nothing  but  battles  ;  she  was  always  organiz- 
ing sieges  and  assaults,  and  gave  great  promise  of 
immortalizing  the  name  of  the  Medici.  John  made 
liis  debut  in  arms  under  Leo  X.  in  Lombardy. 

He  soon  gained  the  titles  of  '^  Invincible  "  and  the 
^^  Great  Devil."  The  Republic  sorely  needed  a  valiant 
arm,  and  he  Avas  made  captain.  When  the  league 
was  organized,  he  assumed  the  command  in  Lom- 
bardy, and  passed,  on  the  advice  of  Clement  YIL, 
into  the  service  of  Francis  I.  One  day,  near  Borgo- 
forte,  whilst  commanding  his  troops,  he  received  a 
wound  from  a  crossbow  just  below  the  knee,  within 
an  inch  or  so  of  the  wound  he  had  received  a  short 
time  before  at  the  ever-memorable  battle  of  Pavia. 
The  greatest  hopes  had  been  entertained  concerning 
him,  but  death  claimed  him  in  his  twenty-ninth  year, 
cut  off,  like  so  many  of  the  Medici,  in  the  flower  of 
life.  He  was  a  keen  warrior,  and  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary personal  valor  ;  in  every  skirmish  he  was 
eager  to  hazard  his  life,  never  allowing  any  one  else 
to  be  beforehand  where  danger  threatened.  Till  his 
time  cavalry  had  always  decided  the  fate  of  battles, 
and  the  Italian  infantry,  which  was  quite  eclipsed  by 
the  Spanish  foot-soldiers,  considered  at  that  time  the 
finest  in  the  world,  occupied  a  very  secondary  position. 
John,  however,  had  trained  it  to  such  a  pitch  that  it 
became  invincible,  as  the  Spaniards  ever  found,  and 


THE  MEDICI.  85 

he  inspired  his  troops  with  feelings  which  might 
almost  be  termed  fanatical.  In  the  day  of  battle, 
and  when  the  time  arrived  for  distribution  of  booty, 
he  ever  left  them  the  material  advantages,  and  con- 
tented himself  with  the  glory.  He  died  at  ^lantua  ; 
on  the  day  of  his  death,  his  troops,  clothed  in  black, 
took  for  their  ensign  the  fmieral  flag  ;  and  so  posterity 
has  known  him  under  the  name  of  ^'  John  of  the  Black 
Band."*  He  had  married  one  of  the  Salviati,  by 
whom  he  had  a  son,  who  afterwards  became  Grand 
Duke  of  Tuscany  under  the  name  of  Cosimo  I. 

COSIMO  I. 

FIRST  GRAND   DUKE   OF   TUSCANY. 
(1519-1574.) 

Cosimo  was  only  seven  years  old  at  his  father's 
death,  and  his  youth  was  a  very  troubled  one.  Pope 
Clement  VII.,  a  Medici  of  the  elder  branch,  looked 
upon  him  with  suspicion  as  a  competitor  for  the  throne 
likely  to  press  forward  his  claims  to  the  detriment  of 
the  natural  sons  of  the  branch  protected  by  the  pontifi- 
cal court.  But  his  mother,  Maria  di  Jacopo  Salviati 
— a  woman  as  full  of  prudence  as  she  was  of  energy — 
watched  over  him  with  jealous  care,  sending  him  first 
to  Venice  with  his  tutor,  and  concealing  him  at  her 
villa  of  Cafaggiolo  or  Trebbio,  whence  she  brought 

*  "  Le  Bande  Nere,"     His  troops  were  so  called  on  account 
of  their  black  armor. 


86  FLORENCE. 

him  back  to  Tuscany.  Xow  and  again  she  would 
spend  several  months  with  him  in  some  secluded  part 
of  Italy,  in  the  hope  that  the  fact  of  his  existence 
would  be  forgotten.  Young  Cosimo  in  time  became 
as  intelligent  as  his  mother,  and  when  Did^e  Alex- 
ander was  selected  by  the  Balia  to  assume  the  reins 
of  government,  he  unhesitatingly  did  him  fealty,  and 
took  the  position  of  an  ordinary  subject. 

On  the  6th  of  January,  1536,  the  Duke  was  mur- 
dered by  Lorenzino,  Avho,  according  to  the  treaty 
made  bv  the  Balia  Avith  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor, 
shoidd  have  succeeded  him,  as  being  his  nearest  rela- 
tive ;  but  the  magisterial  council  declared  him  to  be 
unfit,  and  elected  Cosimo  in  his  stead. 

From  the  very  first  the  position  of  Cosimo  was  a 
most  difficult  one.  Threatened  by  Bologna  on  the 
one  side,  and  Rome  on  the  other;  with  the  exiles 
(backed  even,  secretly,  by  Pope  Paid  himself)  plotting 
from  without,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  citizens  dis- 
affected, the  outlook  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1537 
Avas  a  gloomy  one.  Hostile  factions  Avere  as  implacable 
as  CA^er,  and  the  Strozzi  Avere  recruiting  soldiers  and 
hoping  to  profit  by  the  disturbances  AA'hich  they  Avere 
fomenting.  Cosimo,  hoAveA'er,  kept  a  cool  head,  and 
learning  in  July  that  the  exiles  had  entered  Tuscany 
at  the  head  of  an  armed  force,  he  sent  Vitelh  to  meet 
them.  In  the  battle  that  ensued  Cosimo  gained  a 
complete  triumpli,  the  enemy  Avas  routed,  and  Vitelli 
returned  to  Florence  Avith  his  A^ctorious  troops  and  a 


THE  MEDICI.  87 

number  of  illustrious  captives.  Many  of  the  latter 
were  executed,  and  Fili])po  Strozzi  having  died  in 
prison,  either  bv  his  own  hand  or  Cosimo's  orders, 
the  Duke  remained  in  undisputed  power. 

Cosimo  was  not  merely  Duke  of  Florence,  for  he 
had  subjugated  the  whole  of  Tuscany  ;  and  in  order 
to  consolidate  his  power  and  secure  it  from  future 
attacks,  he  fortified  nearlv  all  the  towns  and  streno^th- 
ened  the  existing  strongholds.  The  fortresses  of  San 
Martino  at  Mugello  and  of  Terra  del  Sole  date  from 
his  time.  He  gave  many  proofs  of  his  courage  and 
ability,  and  having  captured  Siena  on  St.  Stephen's 
(the  pope  and  martyr)  day,  he  instituted  an  order  of 
chivalry,  and  Avhile  conciliating  the  Court  of  Rome 
by  his  determined  destruction  of  the  Turkish  ves- 
sels which  infested  the  coast,  he  gained  the  favor  of 
the  nobles  by  conferring  upon  them  this  illustrious 
order. 

His  position  tluis  consolidated,  Cosimo  I.  was  at 
leisure  to  foster  the  civilization  of  his  subjects  and 
the  development  of  the  arts,  which  flourished  best  in 
time  of  peace.  He  was  very  fond  of  literature,  and 
studied  almost  dally  the  works  of  Tacitus,  two  of  his 
first  enterprises  being  the  restoration  of  the  Universi- 
ties of  Pisa  and  Siena.  He  established  and  endowed 
the  Academy  of  Florence,  and  that  of  La  Crusca 
which  was  already  in  existence  he  enlarged  and  en- 
riched. It  was  during  his  reign  that  the  art  of  print- 
ing was  brought  into  general  use  at  Florence,  and  he 


88  FLOKENCE. 

had  in  his  own  pahice  a  printing  press,  from  which 
were  turned  out  nearly  all  the  works  of  Torrentino, 
so  celebrated  in  the  history  of  Florentine  typography. 
He  was  something  of  a  chemist,  too,  and  is  believed 
to  have  been  among  the  seekers  for  the  philosopher's 
stone,  but  he  made  several  practical  discoveries  in 
his  laboratory,  including  certain  secrets  for  cutting 
precious  stones  and  for  dissolving  metals  by  the  use 
of  oxides  and  herbs.  In  this  he  was  only  following 
the  example  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  who  has 
been  erroneously  described  as  the  restorer  of  the 
glyptic  art  in  Italy.  The  Jubinal  collection  in  Paris 
contains  a  very  beautifid  box  of  tools  with  the  ]\Iedici 
arms,  made  beyond  question  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  which  was  evidently  used  by 
Cosimo  in  his  various  experiments.  It  appears  that 
he  was  very  fond  of  experimenting  on  porphyry  so  as 
to  make  it  soft  enough  for  the  chisels,  and  that  for 
this  purpose  he  steeped  his  tools  in  the  juice  of  cer- 
tain herbs.  He  confided  his  secret  to  Francesco 
Ferucci,  alias  Cecco  del  Tadda,  who  carved  the 
porphyry  statue  of  Justice  which  crowns  the  column 
on  the  Piazza  della  Santa  Trinita.  Cosimo  was  an 
mifailing  patron  of  the  artists  who  devoted  their  atten- 
tion to  the  scidpture  of  marbles  of  different  colors,  in 
which  the  contrast  of  color  brought  the  work  into 
special  relief.  Francesco  Ferucci  carved  for  him 
four  medallion  figures,  which  are  still  to  be  seen  in 
the  Uffizi  Gallery,  and  Benvenuto  Cellini,  avIio  did 


THE  MEDICI.  89 

a  great  deal  of  work  for  liiin,  used  porphyry  for  the 
handsome  bust  after  the  antique  in  whieh  the  features 
of  the  Grand  Duke  are  preserved  to  us.  This  was 
not,  unfortunately,  the  greatest  epoch  in  Florentine 
history.  Art  was  already  beginning  to  decay,  and 
with  the  exception  of  Giovanni  da  Bologna  and  Cel- 
lini, it  had  no  better  representatives  than  Baccio 
BandineUi,  Tribolo,  Ammanati,  and  Yincenzio  Danti. 
Donatello,  Benedetto  da  Maiano,  Desiderio,  and  Mino 
had  been  dead  for  more  than  a  century,  and  Yasari 
was  the  most  prominent  cf  the  architects,  but  the 
epoch  was  none  the  less  a  remarkable  one,  being,  so 
to  speak,  the  last  flicker  of  the  flame  which  had  cast 
so  vivid  a  lio'ht  over  the  whole  of  Italv. 

It  was  Cosimo  I.,  or  rather  his  Avife,  who  purchased 
from  the  Pitti  family  the  celebrated  palace,  now  the 
property  of  the  Crown,  in  which  has  been  formed  the 
world-renowned  gallery  of  pictures. 

In  order  to  connect  the  palace  with  the  Uffizi  Gal- 
lery, which  he  had  just  had  built  by  Yasari  for  the 
tribunals  and  civil  courts,  Cosimo  asked  the  author 
of  the  ^'  Yite  "  to  erect  a  corridor,  carried  over  the 
arcades  of  the  Ponte  Yecchio.  He  also  connected 
the  Uffizi  Gallery  with  the  old  palace  in  which  he 
resided,  and  it  was  at  his  request  that  Ammanati 
erected  the  singular  fountain  at  the  corner  of  the 
ducal  palace,  for  which  Benvenuto  Cellini  made  a 
tender.  Ammanati  was  a  really  great  artist,  as  will 
be  seen  when  we  come  to  treat  of  Florentine  sculp- 


90  FLORENCE. 

tare,  and  it  was  lie  who  built  the  Ponte  alia  Trinita; 
which  has  such  a  fine  span  over  the  Arno. 

Cosimo,  sustaining  the  traditions  of  his  family, 
went  far  towards  making  a  new  city  of  Florence. 
Buontalenti,  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  Montorsoli,  Re- 
ligiosa  Serrita,  Vincenzio  Danti,  Tribolo,  Jacopo  da 
Pontormo,  Angiolo  Bronzino,  Zucchero,  and  Gio- 
vanni Strado  were  in  his  employ,  and  decorated  the 
palaces  and  monuments  which  he  built.  To  him 
Florence  owes  the  Boboli  Gardens,  and  many  of  her 
piazzas,  bridges,  fountains,  and  statues,  and  his  name 
is  engraved  on  many  a  commemorative  stone  in  the 
principal  streets. 

Science  and  literature  were  still  held  in  honor,  and 
although  the  greatest  Italian  names  had  disappeared, 
the  memory  of  them  still  remained.  Cosimo  com- 
pleted the  Libreria  Laurentiana,  commenced  by 
Michael  Angelo  in  the  cloisters  of  San  Lorenzo  at 
the  request  of  Pope  Clement  VII.,  but  never  com- 
pleted. He  turned  his  attention  also  to  agriculture, 
and  endeavored  to  reclaim  the  tracts  of  waste  and 
barren  land  around  Pisa.  He  was  a  patron  of  botany, 
and  appointed  to  the  professorship  of  Pisa  one  Luke 
Ghini,  whom  he  instructed  to  form  a  botanical  garden 
at  Boboli.  Then,  again,  in  order  to  facilitate  legal 
proceedings,  which  were  unduly  lengthened  by  the 
absence  of  any  carefid  record  of  previous  cases,  he 
instituted  the  "  Archivio  Generale,"  in  which  deeds, 
classified  by  the  names  of  the  families  to  whom  they 


THE  MEDICI.  91 

belonged,  and  of  their  notaries,  were  deposited,  so  as 
to  prevent  any  disputes  as  to  the  rights  of  succession. 
Cosimo  was  very  partial  to  pomp  of  everv  kind, 
including  jousts  and  tilting  matches,  and  after  tlie 
capture  of  Siena  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  form  a 
mounted  troop  of  a  hundred  nobles,  selected  from 
among  the  most  proficient  in  riding,  fencing,  danc- 
ing, and  tilting.  He  did  the  same  at  Florence,  and 
his  reign  Avitnessed  a  revival  of  the  splendid  Triumphs 
organized  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  There  was 
not,  perhaps,  so  much  delicacy  of  outline  and  concep- 
tion, but  these  Triumphs,  representations  of  wliich 
are  preserved  to  us  in  prints  and  engravings  which 
would  form  a  library  of  themselves,  Avere  conducted 
upon  an  even  more  lavish  scale.  Moreover,  as  to  all 
these  qualities  he  added  that  of  a  legislator,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  Florence  and  Tuscanv,  if  they 
surrendered  their  liberties,  secured  througli  the 
strength  and  authority  of  Cosimo  a  peaceful  and 
assured  protectorate.  He  acted  with  the  full  con- 
sciousness of  his  power,  building  churches,  combat- 
ing the  heresy  which  was  then  beginning  to  spread 
in  Germany,  joining  forces  with  Rome  against  the 
Turk,  and  receiving  from  Pope  Pius  V.  the  title  of 
Grand  Duke,  Avith  the  purple  and  the  diadem. 
Charles  V.  sent  him  the  Golden  Fleece,  but  history 
says  that  the  honor  Avas  bestoAved  more  upon  the 
wealthy  jMedici  aa'Iio  had  lent  him  money  than  upon 
the  sovereign  ruler  of  Florence. 


92  FLOREXCE. 

Cosimo  was  a  politician  and  legislator  of  no  little 
talent^  but  it  is  well  known  now  that  most  historians 
have  kept  back  the  truth  as  to  the  depravity  of  his 
private  life.  History  has  recorded  his  public  acts, 
and  by  glossing  over  his  crimes  and  vices  has  made 
him  famous,  but  it  is  only  too  true  that  in  a  fit  of 
passion  he  slew  his  tAvo  sons,  Don  Garcia  and  Car- 
dinal Giovanni.  Their  mother,  the  Duchess  Elean- 
ora,  was  so  horror-stricken  that  she  died,  and  it  was 
given  out  at  Florence  that  the  putrid  fever,  then  prev- 
alent at  Pisa,  had  carried  off  all  three  of  them.  It 
is  supposed,  too,  that  Cosimo  I.  is  responsible  for  the 
murder  of  Sforza  Almini,  a  gentleman  of  Venice,  who 
had  spoken  of  him  as  the  author  of  these  crimes. 

The  first  wife  of  the  first  Grand  Duke  was  Elean- 
ora  of  Toledo,  the  daughter  of  Don  Pedro  of  Toledo, 
Viceroy  of  Naples,  by  whom  he  had  seven  sons  and 
three  daughters.  After  he  had  been  the  indirect 
cause  of  their  mother's  death,  he  married  Cammilla 
Martelli,  the  daughter  of  an  illustrious  Florentine 
house,  whom  he  had  seduced,  and  by  whom  he  had 
had  an  illegitimate  daughter,  Virginia,  afterwards  the 
wife  of  Don  Csesar  of  Este.  It  was  at  the  injunction 
of  Pius  v.,  who  had  received  from  Cosimo  a  confes- 
sion of  all  these  crimes,  that  he  contracted  this  second 
marriage ;  but  his  wife,  though  she  appeared  at  Court, 
never  took  the  title  of  Grand  Duchess.  Cosimo  died 
on  the  21st  of  April,  1574,  of  malignant  fever  at  his 
country  house,  Costello,  and  besides  his  bust  by  Cel- 


THE  MEDICI.  93 

lini,  we  liave  an  equestrian  statue  of  him  by  Gio- 
vanni (la  Bologna,  erected  twenty  years  after  his 
death,  on  the  Grand  Ducal  Square.  The  pedestal  is 
adorned  with  several  bas-reliefs  representing  episodes 
in  his  history.  There  are  also  many  portraits  of  him, 
mostly  by  Bronzino,  among  them  a  panel  picture  in 
the  gallery  of  Princess  Matilda  Bonafaste,  in  which 
he  is  surrounded  by  his  sons. 

FRA>XESCO  I. 

(1541-1587.) 

Called  upon  to  succeed  Cosimo  I.,  Francesco,  the 
eldest  son,  had  undergone  a  ten  years'  apprenticeship 
to  government  under  liis  father,  and  Avas  therefore 
ripe  for  the  exercise  of  power.  He  possessed  many 
high  qualities,  being  of  a  pacific  disposition,  devoted 
to  art,  and  enough  of  a  builder  to  leave  his  mark  upon 
Florence.  During  his  reign  flourished  Bernardo 
Buontalenti  and  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  the  last  great 
artists  of  the  Renaissance  period,  and  he  was  him-  ^ 
self  an  adept  in  the  art  of  stone  engraving,  which 
was  very  much  developed  and  improved  at  Florence 
about  this  time. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  Florence  was 
at  peace,  and  Francesco  I.  built  the  Pratolino  at  a 
cost  of  782,000  gold  crowns,  giving  free  course  to 
his  fondness  for  gardens,  fountains,  and  summer- 
houses.  It  was  Francesco  who  founded  the  Uffizi 
Galleries,   which   contain   so   many  masterpieces   of 


94  FLOEEXCE. 

painting  and  sculpture.  The  varied  imagination  of 
Giovanni  de  Bologna  was  allowed  full  scope  in  the 
decoration  of  the  Boboli  Gardens,  and  it  was  at  this 
date  that  were  carved  the  Giant  representing  the 
Apennines  which  stands  in  the  Pratolino,  and  the 
famous  Sabine  group  under  the  Loggia  of  the  Lanzi. 

Francesco  married,  in  1565,  Joanna  of  Austria, 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  and  sister  of 
the  Emperor  Maximilian,  by  Avhom  he  had  three 
daughters  and  a  son,  Philip,  all  of  whom  died  except- 
ing Mary,  who,  by  her  marriage  with  Henry  IV.,  be- 
came Queen  of  France. 

The  salient  feature  in  the  private  life  of  Francesco 
was  his  passion  for  the  famous  Bianca  Capello,  who 
eventually  became  Grand  Duchess  of  Tuscany. 
Francesco  has  been  represented  as  sensuous  and 
ferocious,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  his  defect  was 
rather  weakness  of  character,  and  when  he  found 
that  Florence  was  at  peace  he  left  the  conduct  of 
affairs  to  his  ministers,  concentrating  his  attention  on 
pleasure  and  art.  He  was  a  very  well-read  man,  too, 
giving  his  patronage  to  printing  and  literature,  liis 
'^  correspondence  with  Aldo  Manucio  and  Ulysses  Al- 
drovandri,  the  great  printer,  being  still  extant. 

Very  strange  is  the  episode  of  Bianca  Capello, 
who,  eloping  at  night  from  her  father's  house,  event- 
ually finds  her  way  to  the  Court  and  becomes  Grand 
Duchess.  The  story  has  been  told  in  every  book 
upon  Venice,  but  there  are  some  incidents  in  it  re- 


Portrait  of  Bianca  Cappello. 
Bronzino, 


THE  MEDICI.  95 

lating  to  Florence  which  will  be  worth  narrating  here. 
Earth elemi  Capello,  a  patrician,  was  the  fother  by  his 
wife, — one  of  the  Morosini  family, — of  a  daughter 
named  Bianca,  born  in  l.")48.  Barthelemi,  having 
lost  his  first  wife,  remarried,  and  his  second  wife, 
Lucrezia  Grimani,  who  was  very  young,  bestowed 
little  care  on  Bianca.  The  latter  from  her  balcony 
one  day  espied  a  young  gallant,  Pietro  de  Zenobio 
Bonaventuri,  who  was  looking  at  her  with  evident 
admiration.  He  often  came  to  the  window,  and  from 
exchanging  signs  they  got  to  exchanging  letters,  and 
at  last  she  agreed  to  meet  him.  As  he  was  only  on 
a  visit  to  Venice  from  Florence,  Bianca  fled  with  him 
(28th  November,  1563)  to  the  latter  city,  where  they 
were  married,  and  it  was  during  her  husband's  life- 
time that  Bianca,  who  had  acquired  great  notoriety 
by  her  elopement,  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Francesco.  The  husband  shut  his  eyes 
to  their  intimacy,  and  was  given  a  post  in  the  grand 
ducal  household  ;  and  as  he  himself  led  a  somewhat 
irregular  life,  an  opportunity  was  taken  of  inveigling 
him  into  an  ambusli,  which  residted  in  his  death. 
There  is  no  positive  proof  that  Francesco  had  any 
share  in  the  crime  ;  but  at  all  events  the  coincidence 
is  suspicious,  for  Joanna  of  Austria  Avas  dead,  and 
there  was  no  longer  any  obstacle  to  his  imion  with 
Bianca,  a  widow.  Francesco  asked  the  Senate  of 
Venice  to  give  her  to  him  in  marriage,  and  they  were 
so   anxious   to   secure  the  friendship  of  the   Grand 


96  FLORENCE. 

Duke  of  Tuscany  that  they  readily  assented,  though 
her  name  had  been  erased  from  the  Libro  d'  Oro. 

The  marriage  fetes  of  Bianca  Capello  created  a 
great  sensation,  and  they  are  described  in  a  pamphlet 
which  has  been  lent  to  me  by  the  heirs  of  the  late 
M.  Firmin-Didot,  and  several  engravings  from  which 
have  been  reproduced.  The  Silver  Wedding  of  the 
Emperor  of  Austria,  the  anniversary  of  which  was 
celebrated  at  Vienna  with  great  pomp  under  the 
superintendence  of  Makart  the  painter,  gives  us  some 
idea  of  what  these  pageants  were  like,  but  during  the 
Italian  Renaissance  they  had  an  intensity  and  a 
piquancy  not  to  be  met  Avith  anywhere  else.  When 
Lucretia  Borgia  entered  Rome  she  was  followed  by 
two  hundred  ladies  on  horseback^  magnificently 
dressed,  and  each  accompanied  by  the  cavalier  of  her 
choice.  Lorenzo  wrote,  just  before  one  of  his  Tri- 
umphsj  to  the  Pope  asking  for  the  loan  of  two  ele- 
phants, which  he  wanted  to  introduce  into  the  pro- 
cession, and  the  Pope,  as  he  had  not  any  of  these 
animals,  sent  him  two  leopards  and  a  panther. 

The  fetes  to  celebrate  the  marriage  of  Bianca 
Capello  were  among  the  most  splendid  ever  given, 
and  though  others  may  have  been  more  sumptuous 
in  after-times,  they  did  not  possess  the  same  stamp 
of  elegance  which  was  peculiar  to  the  age  when  ar- 
tistic taste  reached  its  zenith  in  Italy.  Each  of  the 
principal  groups  in  this  pageant  was  a  masterpiece. 
Bianca's  car  was  drawn  by  lions,  but  to  all  the  others 


THE  MEDICI.  97 

were  harnessed  horses  dressed  up  in  skins  of  Avild 
animals^  or  so  disguised  as  to  resemble  griffins  and 
iniicorns  ;  or  buffaloes  covered  with  elephants'  skins. 
Naked  men  and  women  had  their  bodies  painted  with 
gold,  in  order  that  they  might  represent  the  deities 
of  Olympus  5  and  all  Florence  was  mad  with  excite- 
ment in  greeting  a  prince  to  whose  defects  they  were 
ready  to  close  their  eyes. 

The  husband  and  Avife  were  only  united  for  seven 
years,  and  they  both  died  on  the  19th  of  October, 
1587,  at  an  interval  of  only  a  few  hours,  in  their 
villa  at  Poggio  Caiano.  It  was  always  supposed  that 
they  had  both  been  poisoned,  but  Litta,  a  very  trust- 
worthy historian,  in  his  ^^  Genealogies  of  ItaHan  Fam- 
ilies,'' puts  these  suspicions  into  Avords.  His  version 
is  that  Bianca  intended  to  poison  her  brother-in-law, 
and  that  her  husband  accidentally  partook  of  the  tart 
which  she  had  prepared,  and  that  she,  when  the  truth 
dawned  upon  her,  poisoned  herself  in  despair.  He 
adds  that  when  Cardinal  ]\[edicl,  for  whom  the  tart 
was  intended,  came  in,  and  learnt  what  had  taken 
})lace,  he  put  his  back  against  the  door  and  would  not 
let  any  one  enter  until  he  was  assured  that  lius])and 
and  wife  had  both  breathed  their  last. 

A  document,  however,  which  goes  far  towards  ex- 
onerating Bianca  of  this  charge  is  a  letter  from  Vit- 
torio  Soderini  to  Silvio  Piccolomini,  in  which  he  says, 
"  The  two  bodies  were  opened  before  burial,  and 
Baccio  Baldini   and  Leopoldo  da  Barga  assured  me 

7 


98  FLORENCE. 

that  in  both  cases  there  were  the  same  signs  of  corrup- 
tion in  the  liver  and  lungs.  Bianca  Capello  had 
been  dropsical  for  more  than  t\YO  years,  and  a  large 
quantity  of  water  was  taken  from  her  body.  The 
common  people  beheved  that  both  had  died  of  poison, 
but  these  stories  are  all  untruCj  and  those  who  are  the 
most  likely  to  know  think  that  they  died  a  natural 
death." 

It  is  said  that  the  body  of  Bianca  was  buried  in  the 
paupers'  grave  at  San  Lorenzo,  instead  of  in  the  tomb 
of  the  Grand  Dukes,  while  the  remains  of  Francesco 
I.  were  laid  beside  those  of  his  first  wife,  Joanna  of 
Austria ;  but  some  assert  that  Bianca  too  was  pri- 
vately interred  with  her  husband.  Leaving,  as  has 
been  said,  only  one  daughter,  Marie  de'  Medici,  the 
future  Queen  of  France,  Francesco  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  Ferdinand.  There  are  several  por- 
traits of  Bianca  both  at  Venice  and  Florence,  the 
best  being  those  in  the  Pitti  Palace. 

FEEDIXAND  I. 

(1551-1C09.) 

The  son  of  Cosimo  I.  and  Eleanora  of  Toledo,  who 
succeeded  Francesco  L,  found  Tuscany  too  small  for 
him,  and  this  prince,  aa^io  had  the  instincts  of  a  con- 
queror, was  the  first  of  his  family  since  the  fifteenth 
century  who  endeavored  to  make  his  influence  felt 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  Italy. 

There  are  two   distinct  phases  in  the   career   of 


THE  MEDICI.  99 

Ferdlnanrl.  Brought  up  for  the  Church,  he  was  made 
a  cardinal,  and  lived  in  a  monastery  at  Rome,  Avith 
all  the  pomp  that  became  one  of  his  family. 

Resolute  and  haughty,  he  was  more  feared  than 
liked  at  the  Vatican,  though  he  had  tact  enougli  to 
exercise  a  considerable  influence  over  the  Sacred 
College,  and  it  is  even  said  that  in  questions  of  the 
first  importance  his  opinions  carried  as  much  weight 
as  those  of  the  Pontiff  himself.  While  wearing  the 
purple,  his  undertakings  were  necessarily  of  a  peace- 
ful character,  and  he  concentrated  his  attention  upon 
what  we  now  call  ^^  Missions."  Combining,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  a  Medici,  a  zeal  for  intellectual  research 
with  his  religious  propaganda,  he  fostered  the  study 
of  the  Oriental  languages,  setting  up  at  his  own  cost  » 
a  printing-press  in  Oriental  characters,  and  organiz- 
ing foreign  missions  to  which  he  attached  young  stu- 
dents, who  came  back  to  Rome  and  founded  a  college 
in  which  they  taught  Arabic,  Sanscrit,  and  Hindu- 
stani. He  also  had  translations  made  of  philosophical, 
medical  and  mathematical  treatises  from  the  Arabic, 
and  distributed  them  in  all  directions.  Fond  of  dis- 
play, amid  all  his  peaceful  occupations  he  followed 
the  example  of  his  ancestor,  Cardinal  Hippolvtus, 
and  had  a  large  escort  of  cavalry.  The  Pope  on  one 
occasion  having  threatened  to  imprison  him  in  San 
Angelo,  Cardinal  Medici  took  the  bull  by  the  horns, 
and  came  to  seek  audience  of  the  Pope  with  a  cuirass 
under  his  robe,  and  when  the  Pontiff  angrilv  declared 


100  FLOKENCE. 

that  it  was  in  his  power  to  deprive  him  of  the  hat 
which  symbohzed  the  dignity  of  Cardinal,  Medici 
replied  that  if  he  lost  his  hat  he  should  substitute  for 
it  the  iron  crown. 

Having  succeeded  his  brother  as  Grand  Duke,  he 
began  by  according  a  liberal  patronage  to  art  and 
f^  literature,  encouraging  such  men  as  Ammirato  and 
Gabriel  Chiabrera,  building  the  Ferdinand  College  at 
Pisa,  and  that  singular  chapel  within  a  church  (the 
Medici  Chapel  in  San  Lorenzo),  which  is  so  profusely 
decorated  Avith  marbles  and  precious  stones,  but  which 
testilies  rather  to  lavish  expenditure  than  to  refined 
taste.  If  this  chapel  had  been  built  a  century  earlier, 
when  Brunelleschi,  Bramante,  Albcrti,  Michelozzo, 
and  Michael  Angelo  were  alive,  it  might  have  been 
the  most  magnificent  in  the  world,  erected  as  it  was 
close  beside  the  Sagrestia  Nuova,  where  the  twin 
figures  of  "  Day  "  and  ''''  Night,''  of  ^'  Dawn  "  and 
"  Twilight,"  kept  watch  over  the  tombs  of  Lorenzo 
and  Julian. 

Though  Ferdinand  I.  has  had  the  credit  for  the 
building  of  this  chapel,  it  was  not  the  work  of  a  single 
reign,  but  at  the  same  time  it  should  be  added  that 
there  is  no  doubt  as  to  his  having  helped  the  archi- 
tect, Matteo  Kigretti,  to  draw  the  plans.  Francesco 
I.,  however,  had  conceived  the  idea  of  a  Pantheon  of 
this  kind,  and  later  on  the  members  of  the  Medici 
family  were  buried  one  under  the  high  altar, 
another  in  the  old  vestry,  a  third  in  the  new  chapel, 


THE  MEDICI.  101 

and  so  forth.  In  this  connection  a  singular  story, 
too  well  authenticated  to  be  passed  lightly  over,  is 
current.  It  is  said  that  the  Emir  Facardino,  who 
claimed  descent  from  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  and  who, 
full  of  hatred  for  the  Ottomans,  had  gone  to  Italy, 
and  been  received  by  the  Medici,  had  persuaded 
them  that  it  Avould  be  easy  to  lay  hands  upon  the 
tomb  of  our  Saviour  and  bring  it  to  Florence,  where 
a  temple  worthy  of  Christianity  might  be  built  to 
receive  it.  Ferdinand  accordingly  constructed  a 
sepulchre  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Princes,  and  when 
the  design  fell  through  the  sepulchre  was,  perforce, 
converted  into  a  Pantheon  for  the  Medici  family. 

I  repeat  this,  though  perhaps  it  is  without  founda- 
tion ;  but  still  the  reader  of  Giovannio  Mariti's  "  His- 
tory of  Facardino"  (Livorno,  1787)  will  perceive  that 
he  places  some  amount  of  credence  in  it.  The  only 
objection  against  it  is  that  the  journey  of  the  Emir 
to  Florence  dates  from  1604.  However,  be  this  as 
it  may,  the  chapel  was  built,  and  that,  too,  at  a  cost 
of  twenty-two  million  crowns  ;  and  when  one  sees  it, 
it  is  easy  to  understand  that  there  was  nothing  exor- 
bitant in  the  price.  Its  solid  grandeur  is  very  im- 
posing, Avhilst  the  actual  materials  used  are  of  the 
most  precious  description  ;  it  is,  in  fact,  one  mass  of 
gold,  marble,  and  solid  stone.  From  the  floor  to  the 
cupola  the  distance  is  sixty  yards,  and  there  is  a 
marked  disproportion  between  the  statues  of  the  last 
of  the    Medici,   the   work   of  John   of  Bologna   and 


102  FLOEENCE. 

Tacca,  wliicli  stand  iii  the  niches^  and  tliis  extra- 
ordinary monument.  Beneath  the  floor  is  a  crypt 
containing  the  coffins  in  which  the  bodies  of  the  vari- 
ous meniLers  of  the  Medici  family  repose.  Magnifi- 
cent equestrian  statues  were  often  erected  at  Florence 
at  this  periodj  one  of  the  finest  being  that  which 
Ferdinand,  who  had  a  great  taste  for  sculpture,  raised 
beside  the  fountain  of  the  Ammanati  in  the  square  of 
the  old  Palace  to  the  memory  of  his  father,  Cosimo  I. 

His  own  statue,  which  is  that  of  an  equestrian  cast 
in  bronze  by  Tacca,  is  a  magnificent  work  of  art, 
and  stands  in  the  square  of  the  Annunciation.  It 
was  erected  by  his  son,  Ferdinand  II.  Pisa  and  Leg- 
horn are  indebted  to  him  for  many  of  their  monu- 
ments. At  Florence  he  continued  that  work  of 
adornment  which  his  father  and  brother  had  com- 
menced. His  external  policy  was  marked  by  a  cer- 
tain spirit  of  adventure,  for  this  was  the  time  when 
so  many  incursions  were  made  by  the  Turks  and 
African  corsairs,  who,  crossing  the  Adriatic,  bom- 
barded the  towns  on  the  coast,  Otranto  for  instance, 
which  was  destroyed,  and  has  never  recovered  from 
the  blow  inflicted  on  it  by  the  Porte. 

Charles  V.  took  his  fleet  to  Algiers,  Bona,  and  the 
coast  of  Morocco,  the  chevaliers  of  the  order  of  St. 
Stephen,  instituted  by  Cosimo  L,  taking  part  in  this 
attack  against  the  infidels.  Ferdinand  fitted  out  a 
number  of  cruisers,  and  from  pure  love  of  glory  sailed 
with  his  fleet  for  Bona,  his  enterprise  receiving  the 


THE  MEDICI.  103 

support  of  the  Pope.  He  won  several  victories  at 
sea,  and  many  portraits  of  him  are  extant  in  naval 
unifurm.  He  distinguished  himself  on  land,  also,  by 
sending  troops  to  the  Danube  in  order  to  relieve  the 
Emperor,  who  was  being  harassed  by  the  Turks.  A 
careful  inspection  of  the  scutcheon  at  the  base  of  his 
statue  on  the  Piazza  Annunziata  shows  that  he  had 
altered  the  '^  Imprese "  of  the  Medici  of  the  elder 
branch,  and  adopted  the  swarm  of  bees  and  the  motto, 
^'Majestate  tantum."  The  most  striking  allusion  to 
this  part  of  his  career  is  to  be  seen  at  Leghorn,  where 
he  took  ship,  and  where  still  stands  a  marble  statue 
representing  him  in  military  uniform,  with  three 
Turkish  slaves  in  chains  at  the  base.  This  statue  is 
by  Tacca,  the  greatest  sculptor  in  Florence  dm-iug 
the  seventeenth  century. 

Ferdinand  cannot  be  charged  with  excessive  pride, 
nor  with  any  such  blood-guiltiness  as  tarnishes  the 
memory  of  several  of  his  ancestors.  He  died  at  the 
age  of  tifty-eight,  on  the  7th  of  February,  1609,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Cosimo,  the  only  son  born  of  his 
marriage  with  Christine  of  Lorraine. 

COSIMO  II. 
(1590-1621.) 

The  son  of  Ferdinand  was  very  delicate,  cared  more 
for  the  arts  of  peace  than  for  military  enterprise,  and 
was  fond  of  poetry,  music,  theatrical  and  equestrian 
spectacles.     Jousts  and  tournaments  were  held  almost 


104  FLORENCE. 

daily,  and  the  literary  men  of  the  day  were  constantly 
inventing  entertainments,  which  were  carried  out 
by  painters  and  skilled  workmen.  Upon  one  occa- 
sion a  large  square  was  converted  into  an  inland  sea, 
over  which  ships  floated  to  represent  the  capture  of 
Bona  and  the  landing  of  the  troops.  A  record  of  all 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  concetti  of  the  time,  which, 
however,  are  so  exaggerated  that  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish between  what  is  true  and  what  is  false. 
These  later  artists  had  not  so  much  genius  as  their 
predecessors,  and  though  their  love  of  art  was  equally 
profound,  they  seem  to  have  lost  something  of  the 
spirit  of  manliness,  and  their  touch  something  of  its 
firmness.  Their  mincing  and  effeminate  method  was 
very  different  from  the  mascidine  and  austere  lines 
with  which  their  ancestors  were  content ;  and,  with  its 
complicated  and  contorted  designs,  led  to  the  creation 
of  the  singular  school  which  afterwards  made  disciples 
everywhere.  The  death  of  Giovanni  da  Bologna 
left  Tacca  the  sole  representative  of  the  great  sculp- 
tors, while  architecture  was  represented  by  Giulio 
Pasigi,  and  painting  by  Cigoli,  Passignani,  Christoforo 
Allori,  and  Rosselli.  The  sun  was  fast  setting,  and 
another  twenty  years  bring  us  to  the  decadence  of 
art  in  Florence. 

Cosimo  II.,  however,  had  the  honor  of  befriending 
Galileo  ;  he  recalled  him  from  Padua  and  appointed 
him  ^^  philosopher  and  mathematician  extraordinary," 
in  return  for  which  his  name  has  been  handed  down 


THE  MEDICI.  105 

to  posterity  in  the  dedications  of  a  number  of  the 
great  astronomer's  works,  the  latter  likewise  giving 
the  title  of  "  the  Medici  stars  "  to  the  four  satellites 
of  Jupiter  discovered  by-  him  wliilc  sweeping  with 
his  telescope  the  azure  of  the  Florentine  sky. 

His  reign  was  short,  but  not  inglorious ;  succeed- 
ing to  the  throne  in  1609,  he  died  in  1621,  leaving 
by  his  wife,  Maria  Maddalena  of  Austria,  a  son,  Fer- 
dinand, who  was  only  ten  years  of  age  at  the  time  of 
his  father's  death. 

FEKDINAND  11. 

(1611-1670.) 

Tuscany  was  thus  governed  by  a  regency,  and 
though  the  time  was  past  when  a  revolution  Avas  to 
be  apprehended,  the  economic  effects  of  this  ten  years^ 
minority  were  very  unfovorable.  Christine  of  Lor- 
raine, the  grandmother  of  the  young  i)rince,  was  still 
alive,  and  she  acted  as  co-regent  with  his  mother. 
Badly  advised,  and  too  proud  to  sacrifice  their  own 
ideas,  the  effect  of  their  ten  years'  rule  was  to  im- 
poverish the  State  for  a  very  long  time.  They  took 
upon  themselves  to  carry  on  the  grain  trade  of  Siena, 
and  by  their  unskilful  administration  ruined  the  whole 
province.  They  were  liberal  to  prodigality,  and  the 
result  was  that  the  country  became  so  impoverished 
that  pawmshops  were  opened  in  Florence  for  the  iirst 
time.  In  the  meanwhile  the  young  prince  was  on  his 
travels.    After  a  stav  in  Rome  he  went  to  Prague,  and 


106  FLORENCE. 

thence  all  through  Germany.  In  1628,  havmg  at- 
tamed  his  majority,  he  returned  to  Florence,  and 
commenced  his  rule. 

He  married  Vittoria  della  Rovere,  and  the  early 
years  of  his  reign  were  very  peaceful,  though  they 
were  darkened  by  a  visitation  of  the  plague,  Avhich 
had  not  appeared  in  Tuscany  for  several  centuries. 
The  young  sovereign  displayed  great  courage  in 
helping  to  stamp  out  this  terrible  scourge  ;  but  he 
Avas  not  animated  by  any  martial  spirit,  and  on  the 
death  of  the  Duke  of  Urbino,  in  1631,  he  incurred 
the  displeasure  of  his  subjects  by  his  half-hearted 
opposition  to  the  claims  which  the  Court  of  Rome 
advanced. 

He  was,  however,  compelled  to  give  his  aid  when 
his  brother-in-law,  Farnese,  marched  his  forces 
through  Tuscany  in  order  to  recover  Castro  and 
Ronciglione,  Avhich  had  been  unlawfidly  seized  by 
the  Pope.  After  so  many  years  of  improvident  ad- 
ministration, Tuscany  was  not  very  Avell  prepared  for 
a  heavy  military  expenditure,  and  Ferdinand  11.  lost 
what  little  popularity  he  had  gained  during  the  epi- 
demic by  the  increase  of  taxation  which  was  ren- 
dered necessary.  He  enjoyed  a  high  moral  credit 
abroad,  and  the  House  of  ]\Iedici  had  acquired  a 
prominent  place  in  what  we  should  now  caU  ^^  the 
European  Concert,"  by  the  mere  fact  of  having  given 
two  queens  to  France,  in  the  persons  of  Catherine, 
wife  of  Henry  II.,  and  Marie,  Avife  of  Henry  IV. 


THE  MEDICI.  107 

Very  moderate  in  his  views,  and  animated  by  a 
religious  spirit  which  never  degenerated  into  fanati- 
cism, Ferdinand  acted  as  intermediary  between  Alex- 
ander VII.  and  Louis  XIII.,  and  was  instrumental 
in  the  signature  of  the  Treaty  of  Pisa,  which  prob- 
ably prevented  the  recurrence  of  the  cruel  inva- 
sions of  preceding  centuries.  His  reign  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  close  of  a  period  not  inglorious  in  art, 
for  Pietro  Tacca  was  still  alive,  painting  Avas  repre- 
sented by  Giovanni  da  San  Giovanni  and  Pietro  de 
Cortona,  while  Stefano  della  Bella,  a  gifted  designer, 
composed  the  fetes  and  the  public  rejoicings  which 
were  still  in  vogue.  Ferdinand  also  devoted  much 
attention  to  the  embellishment  of  towns,  and  to  the 
improvement  of  the  seaports,  notably  of  Leghorn, 
and  he  made  a  determined  effort  to  suppress  the  cor- 
sairs of  Tunis. 

The  name  of  Ferdinand  is,  however,  most  honor- 
ably associated  with  that  of  Galileo,  whom  he  seems 
to  have  befriended  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power. 

The  great  astronomer  having  been  accused  to  Pope 
Urban  VIII.  a  member  of  the  Barberini  family,  was 
summoned,  when  seventy  years  of  age,  to  appear  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition,  upon  the  charge 
of  having  maintained  a  theory  contrary  to  that  of  the 
Church.  The  Tuscan  Court  followed  the  progress  of 
the  trial  with  keen  interest,  but  in  the  end  Galileo 
had  to  be  given  up.  After  sixteen  days  of  imprison- 
ment he  was  allowed  to  live  in  his  own  house  and 


108  FLORENCE. 

drive  about  the  city.  But  fifty  days  later  he  was 
again  arrested,  and  this  time  informed  that  unless  he 
abjured  his  errors  he  would  be  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  It  was  then,  according  to  a  story  which 
seems  to  be  as  baseless  as  it  is  well  known,  that  the 
illustrious  Galileo  knelt  in  submission  in  the  church 
of  Santa  Maria  Sopra  Minerya,  concluding  his  forced 
recantation  with  the  words  so  often  quoted  ^'  Fur  se 
muoreP 

He  was  subsequently  permitted  to  reside  in  the 
Medici  Palace  on  the  Trinita  di  Monte,  and  later  to 
remoye  to  Siena,  where  he  remained  for  seyeral 
months  in  the  Palace  of  the  Archbishop. 

Ferdinand  II.  finally  procured  permission  for  him 
to  return  to  Florence,  where  he  passed  the  eight  re- 
maining years  of  his  life  in  peace. 

The  epoch  was  undoubtedly  an  intellectual  one,  for 
Ferdinand's  natural  bent  Avas  literary,  and  he  had 
also  acquired  some  celebrity  as  a  chemist.  There  is 
another  of  the  Medici  family,  howeyer,  who  must  not 
be  passed  oyer  without  notice,  and  this  is  Cardinal 
Leopold,  who  made  himself  fjimous  by  his  loye  of 
study,  and  his  patronage  of  all  those  who  had  distin- 
guished themselyes  in  science,  literature,  and  art. 
This  sufficed,  in  a  country  like  Florence,  to  giye  a 
great  impulse  to  intellectual  pursuits.  The  loye  of 
natural  science  had  already  been  manifested  by  the 
earlier  Medici,  to  whom  we  owe  many  yaluable  dis- 
coveries, and  the  sojourn  of  Galileo  had   stimulated 


Galileo^s  Tower, 


THE  MEDICI.  109 

the  zeal  of  those  who  were  studying  physics  and 
mathematics^  for  he  founded  a  school,  and  left  behind 
him  pupils  such  as  Niccolo  Aggiunti,  Evangelista 
Torricelli,  and  Vincenzio  Viviani. 

This  movement  received  the  support  of  Ferdinand, 
and  of  his  brother  the  Cardinal,  the  latter  of  whom 
founded  the  celebrated  Cimento  Academy,  which  be- 
came such  a  focus  of  intellectual  splendor.  The  light 
was  about  to  be  extinguished,  but  there  was  a  final 
flicker,  and  those  who  lived  in  Florence  then  might 
have  seen  a  grand  duke  working  in  his  laboratory, 
with  the  aid  of  his  brother,  a  prince  of  tlie  Church, 
and  of  Yiviani,  at  experiments  made  to  see  Avhether 
mercury  could  not  be  rendered  malleable. 

Ferdinand  undoubtedly  made  some  usefid  discover- 
ies, and  he  deserves  the  credit  of  bringing  out  several 
useful  publications,  and  of  assisting  men  Avhose  re- 
searches were  likely  to  be  of  service  to  the  cause  of 
science.  It  was  at  the  gatherings  in  the  grand  ducal 
palace  that  the  foundation  of  the  Cimento  Academy 
was  decided  upon  ;  its  career  was  short,  though  bril- 
liant. The  first  meeting  was  held  on  the  lOtli  of 
June,  1657,  the  assembly  taking  for  their  crest  a  re- 
tort and  three  crucibles,  with  the  motto,  '^  Provando 
Riprovando."  The  meetings  were  held  at  the  Pitti 
Palace,  and  the  members,  only  nine  in  all,  were  the 
Grand  Duke,  Cardinal  Leo})old,  the  brothers  Paolo 
and  Candido  del  Buono,  Alessandro  Mascili,  Vincen- 
zio Viviani,  Francesco  Rede,  a  celebrated  patrician 


110  FLORENCE. 

of  Ai'ezzo  of  ^Yhom  we  have  a  fine  bronze  medallion, 
Antonio  Uliva,  Giovanni  Alfonso  Borelli^  Count  Carlo 
Renaldini,  and  Count  Lorenzo  ]\Iagalotti,  who  acted 
as  secretary.  But  these  nine  academicians,  Avho, 
patronized  by  the  Grand  Duke,  held  their  sittings  at 
the  palace,  could  command  plenty  of  money,  and  by 
means  of  secretaries  who  were  salaried  by  the  Grand 
Didie,  they  carried  on  a  correspondence  all  over  Tus- 
cany, and  kept  the  lamp  of  learning  alight.  In  1666 
were  published  ^'  Essays  in  Natural  Experiments,'^ 
dedicated  by  Cardinal  Leopold  to  the  Grand  Duke 
Ferdinand. 

The  intention  was  excellent,  but  these  savants 
could  not  agree,  and  that  jealousy  which  is  too  often 
inseparable  from  intellectual  superiority  led  to  so 
much  discord  that  Borelli,  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
of  the  academicians,  withdrew  from  the  Court,  and 
even  from  Tuscany,  taking  with  him  Uliva  and  Ren- 
aldini.     The  Cimento  lived  only  ten  years. 

It  mav  be  said  of  Ferdinand  II.  that  on  the  whole 
he  was  a  great  man,  and  among  his  claims  to  celebrity 
are  his  presents  to  the  Uffizi  Museum,  his  gifts  to  it 
including  several  pictures  Avhich  he  had  inherited 
from  the  Delia  Rovere  family,  such  as  Titian's  cele- 
brated Venus  in  the  tribune-room.  His  brother  the 
Cardinal,  who  had  a  great  love  for  the  antique,  bought 
the  famous  '''  Hermaphrodite,"  the  ^^  Etruscan  Chi- 
mera," and  the  beautiful  bronze  idol,  all  of  which  are 
in  the  Uffizi  collection. 


THE  MEDICI.  Ill 

COSIMO  III. 

(1G42-1723.) 

Brought  up  at  the  Court  of  Ferdinand  11.^  Cosimo 
III.  was  educated  in  a  good  school,  but,  endowed 
though  he  was  with  good  natural  gifts  and  qualities, 
which  might  have  made  a  distinguished  man  of  him, 
he  did  not  employ  them  aright.  He  inherited  from 
his  mother  a  certain  tendency  to  asceticism,  and  he  is 
perhaps  the  only  Medici  who  was  anything  of  a  fa- 
natic. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  journey  Avhich  he  made 
through  Europe  during  his  father's  lifetime  was  more 
like  a  holiday  tour  than  the  travels  of  a  young  prince 
eager  to  see  and  learn.  He  was  accompanied  by 
Count  Maggalotti  of  the  Cimento,  but  the  companion- 
ship of  that  learned  man  was  not  so  profitable  to  him 
as  it  should  have  been. 

The  life-long  ambition  of  Cosimo  III.  was  to  play 
a  leading  part  among  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  but 
he  had  neither  the  talent  nor  the  energy  for  it.  Pie 
was  fond  of  distinctions,  titles,  and  the  pomp  of  the 
Court,  and  to  shed  fresh  lustre  upon  his  throne  he 
would  have  made  any  sacrifice.  As  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  was  pressed  for  money,  Cosimo,  by  a  loan 
which  was  never  repaid,  obtained  from  him  the  right 
to  substitute  the  prefix  of  '^  Royal"  for  that  of  '^Most 
Serene  "  Highness.  Fh^rence  at  this  period  Avas  the 
foreigner's  paradise,  for  Cosimo  was  always  ready  to 


112  FLOEEXCE. 

receive  them  with  great  splendor^  in  the  hope  of  get- 
ting a  great  name  for  himself  abroad.  He  was  very 
generous,  and  made  smuptuous  presents  to  his  minis- 
ters and  to  other  sovereigns. 

The  Court  of  Rome  profited  largely  by  his  liberal- 
ity, and  he  gave  so  much  to  the  Jesuits  and  mission- 
aries that  he  was  more  than  once  embarrassed  for 
money  with  which  to  pay  his  own  troops.  Large 
sums  were  also  spent  on  religious  buildings.  Struck 
by  the  fact  that  several  of  the  religious  congregations 
had  lost  the  austerity  for  which  they  were  formerly 
noted,  Cosimo  sent  to  Spain  for  some  Franciscan  fathers 
from  St.  Peter  of  Alcantara  to  found  two  monasteries 
in  which  the  discipline  should  be  stricter.  From  the 
French  Trappists  he  also  got  several  brothers,  who 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Trappist  monastery  of 
Buonsollazzo  on  the  Mugello.  He  attended  divine 
service  three  times  a  day,  and  took  much  to  heart 
the  religious  lukewarmness  of  the  Florentines,  who 
cared  more  for  the  externals  of  worship  than  for  the 
ideal  which  is  the  aim  of  the  pious. 

He  pensioned  and  assisted  many  authors  of  relig- 
ious books  ;  and  Giuseppe  Brochi,  who  wrote  a  life 
of  Florentine  saints  and  good  men,  being  unable  to 
canonize  him,  includes  him  in  the  list  of  '^  Venerables." 

In  spite  of  these  tendencies,  Cosimo  HI.  did  not 
practise  the  Christian  virtues  of  resignation  and  tol- 
erance. An  Italian  by  birth,  with  no  admixture  of 
foreign  blood,  seeing  that  his  mother  was  a  Princess 


THE  MEDICI.  113 

of  UrbinOy  he  would  have  liked  to  substitute  for  the 
pleasures  and  dissipations  so  dear  to  the  grand  ducal 
Court  the  austere  gravity  of  Spain. 

Cosimo  had  married  during  his  father's  lifetime 
Louise  Marguerite,  daughter  of  Gaston  d'Orleans, 
brother  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  and  by  her  he  had 
two  sons,  Ferdinand  and  John  Gaston,  and  one  daugh- 
ter, Anna  ]\Iaria  Louisa,  who  married  William,  Elector 
and  Count  Palatine.  This  daughter,  at  her  husband's 
death,  returned  to  Florence,  Avhere  she  died  in  1743, 
being  the  last  representative  of  her  celebrated  house. 
Louise  of  Orleans  entertained,  however,  the  most  bit- 
ter feeling  of  dislike  towards  her  husband,  and  never 
rested  until  she  succeeded  in  getting  back  to  France, 
Avhere  she  took  up  her  residence  in  the  Convent  of 
Montmartre,  but  spent  a  great  deal  of  her  time  at 
Court.  There  are  several  portraits  of  her  taken  in 
the  religious  garb,  with  the  convent  and  heights  of 
Montmartre  in  the  background.  The  memoirs  of  the 
seventeenth  century  are  full  of  details  of  visits  paid 
to  this  abbess  of  royal  blood,  who,  with  her  dowry 
and  an  allowance  of  forty  thousand  gold  croAvns  guar- 
anteed by  the  Court,  was  enabled  to  keep  up  no  little 
state. 

Cosimo,  as  soon  as  he  Avas  separated  from  his  wife, 
thought  about  marrying  his  son  Ferdinand,  and  when 
he  was  five-and-twenty  he  obtained  for  him  the  hand 
of  Violante  Beatria,  daughter  of  Duke  Ferdinand  of 
Bavaria.     The  marriage  was   an   unhappy  one,  and 

8 


114  FLOKENCE. 

ended  in  an  immediate  separation,  Ferdinand  lead- 
ing a  very  dissolute  life  and  dying  in  1713.  The 
other  son,  John  Gaston,  whom  his  father  did  not  like, 
had  been  sent  away  from  home,  and  was  married  to 
a  German  princess,  the  daughter  of  Philip  of  Neu- 
burg,  who  was  the  heiress  of  her  father's  principality. 
He  lived  in  Bohemia  on  the  property  belonging  to  his 
wife,  a  very  singular  woman,  who  made  his  existence 
so  intolerable  that  he  left  her  in  Germany  and  went 
to  live  elsewhere.  This  completed  the  ruin  of  the 
house  of  Medici,  and  did  away  with  all  hope  of  an 
heir  being  born  to  the  throne. 

Cosimo,  however,  had  a  brother  in  the  Church, 
whom  he  induced  to  put  off  his  rank  as  cardinal  and 
marry,  in  the  hope  of  perpetuating  the  dynasty.  At 
the  age  of  five-and-forty  he  married  Eleanora  Gon- 
zaga,  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  de  Guastalla,  but  he 
died  two  years  afterwards,  leaving  no  issue,  and  so 
all  the  plans  of  Cosimo  came  to  nought. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  his  reign  was  altogether  an 
inglorious  one.  Cardinal  Leopold  survived  his  nephew 
two  years,  and  if  the  Cimento  Academy  was  broken 
up,  there  remained  in  existence  a  society  devoted  to 
art,  science,  and  literature  ;  physics,  medicine,  nat- 
ural history,  and  botany  were  still  flourishing ;  and 
though  Cosimo  had  other  things  to  attend  to  besides 
the  encouragement  of  intellectual  progress,  he  did  not 
allow  them  to  interfere  with  it.  Francesco  Redi, 
Averani,  Gualtieri,  Piero  Antonio  Micheli,  and  Giam- 


THE  MEDICI.  115 

battista  Xelli  belong  to  this  epoch.  The  kboratory 
and  the  astronomical  observatory  of  the  Pitti  Palace 
were  still  in  full  working  order,  purchases  were  made 
of  instruments  such  as  the  Brugens  telescope  at 
Dresden,  the  first  pneumatic  machine  was  brought 
from  Leyden,  and  experiments  as  to  the  action  of  the 
sun's  rays  upon  gems  and  hard  stones  were  carried 
out.  The  prince  provided  out  of  his  private  purse  a 
pension  for  Micheli,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  the  first 
botanist  of  the  day. 

Then,  again,  the  Apatisti,  a  purely  literary  society, 
was  founded  in  the  room  of  the  Cimento,  and  the 
study  of  languages,  poetry,  and  eloquence  was  brought 
into  fashion  again  by  Benedetto  Averani,  the  two  Sal- 
vini,  Menzini,  Filicaia,  Canon  Mozzi,  Govi,  Father 
Politi,  and  Lami,  to  mention  only  the  most  celebrated. 
The  fine  arts  Avere  to  all  intents  and  purposes  dead, 
earnest  as  were  the  efforts  made  to  revive  them. 
Cosimo  III.  had  made  over  to  the  Uffizi  Gallery  all 
the  masterpieces  derived  from  the  Delia  Rovere  in- 
heritance, and  all  that  Cardinal  Leopold  had  collected 
in  the  Pitti  Palace  became  national  property,  this  be- 
ing the  time  when  the  gallery  of  antiquities  acquired 
that  priceless  treasure,  the  Venus  de'  Medici,  brought 
from  Hadrian's  Villa  at  Tivoli,  with  many  other  statues 
and  objects  of  price. 

Cosimo  III.  was  deficient  in  greatness  of  soul  and 
generosity.  He  was  vindictive,  not  to  say  cruel j  and 
it  is  said  that  having  found  out  that  the  great  geom- 


116  FLORENCE. 

eter,  Lorenzo  Lorenzinij  the  author  of  the  '^  Exerci- 
tatio  Geometrica/'  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the 
Grand  Duchess  Louise  d' Orleans  Avhen  she  was  living 
in  Paris,  he  kept  him  twenty  years  in  a  dungeon  in 
the  tower  of  Volterra.  He  was  short-sighted  enough 
and  intolerant  enough  to  refuse  permission  to  the 
Huguenots  who  were  driven  from  France  by  the  re- 
vocation of  the  Edict  of  Xantes  to  settle  in  the  marshes 
outside  Pisa,  and  thus  was  lost  an  opportunity  for  re- 
claiming them  and  for  founding  a  prosperous  colony, 
as  in  England,  Holland,  and  Brandenburg. 

John  Gaston,  his  son,  and  the  last  of  the  family, 
succeeded  him  in  1723. 

JOHN  GASTON. 

(1G71-1737.) 

While  heir-presumptive  the  last  of  the  Medici 
showed  great  intelligence,  and  much  was  to  be  ex- 
pected from  him.  He  was  kind,  generous,  very  fond 
of  study,  and  in  other  respects  richly  endowed  by 
nature.  Always  associating  with  men  of  learning 
and  great  attainments,  he  studied  many  branches  of 
literature,  among  his  most  intimate  friends  being 
Benedetto  Brasciani,  Giuseppe  Averani,  Enrico 
Koris,  Lorenzini,  Father  Salvini,  and  Magliabecchi, 
the  founder  of  the  Uffizi  library.  He  spoke  Ger- 
man, French,  Spanish,  and  English,  and  was  a  mas- 
ter of  several  dead  languages.  Fond  of  bodily  ex- 
ercises, he  was  a  fine  horseman  and  a  practised  tilter  j 


THE  MEDICI.  117 

and  he  was  also  a  good  musician  and  an  accomplished 
draughtsman. 

This  is  the  stuff  of  which  a  good  sovereign  is  made, 
but  his  father,  avIio  had  no  great  affection  for  him, 
styled  him  "the  learned  doctor  of  the  Medici  family.'' 
The  coldness  which  had  always  been  shown  him  in 
his  youth  kept  liiiti  away  from  Florence,  and  his  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  Philip  of  Neuburg  so 
changed  his  character  and  tastes  that  those  of  his 
compatriots  who  came  to  see  him  could  not  recognize 
in  him  the  brilliant  young  prince  who  had  been  the 
hope  of  the  Tuscan  crown.  He  gradually  lapsed  into 
habits  of  indolence  and  vice,  and  his  Court  fell  be- 
neath the  influence  of  abject  creatures,  in  whose 
society  he  lost  all  sense  of  the  responsibilities  of  his 
rank  and  station. 

Having  left  his  wife  in  Bohemia  and  returned  to 
Florence,  where  he  received  an  allowance  in  keep- 
ing with  his  rank,  he  did  not  attempt  to  maintain 
appearances  or  to  stand  on  etiquette,  becoming  a  tool 
in  the  hands  of  his  valet,  Giidiano  Dami.  This  was 
his  mode  of  life  when  he  was  called  on  to  succeed  his 
father,  and  he  made  no  change,  allowing  his  favorite 
to  govern  him.  He  was  good-natured,  but  it  was  the 
good-nature  of  indolence  rather  than  of  temperament; 
and  he  remained  shut  up  in  his  palace,  where  he 
passed  his  time  in  sensual  indulgence. 

Holding  entirely  aloof  from  affairs  of  State,  his 
subjects  did  not  even  know  him  by  sight ;  and  those 


118  FLOKENCK 

who  wished  to  have  an  audience  of  him  were  obUged 
to  suborn  his  valet.  During  the  fourteen  years  of 
his  reign  he  was  not  present  more  than  two  or  three 
times  at  the  Ministerial  Council.  This  being  the  case, 
the  head  of  each  administration  was  supreme  in  his 
own  department,  and,  strange  to  say,  the  affairs  of 
Florence  were  not  any  the  worse  managed  during 
this  period. 

As  John  Gaston^s  habits  and  pleasures  were  inex- 
pensive, the  royal  treasury  began  to  fill  very  rapidly. 
In  one  of  his  lucid  intervals  this  prince  insisted  upon 
a  reduction  of  the  public  debt  and  of  the  taxation 
Avhich  fell  so  heavily  upon  the  people.  Upon  another 
occasion,  prompted  by  good  advice,  and  perhaps  in 
some  measure  by  his  early  instincts,  he  determined 
to  employ  the  surplus  arising  from  his  disuse  of  the 
etiquette  and  ceremonial  which  were  formerly  main- 
tained, in  enriching  the  public  collections  with  valu- 
able jewels,  pictures,  statuary,  and  works  of  art  of 
every  description.  His  sister,  Anna  Maria,  the  widow 
of  the  Elector,  after  her  return  to  Florence  in  1717, 
also  gave  all  her  pictures  of  the  Flemish  school  to  the 
Uffizi  Museum,  and  by  her  will,  dated  April  5,  1739, 
she  bequeathed  all  the  statues,  pictures,  and  curiosi- 
ties which  belonged  to  her  as  sole  and  legitimate 
heiress  of  the  Medici  family,  to  Florence,  having 
previously  made  a  special  agreement  (October  31, 
1737)  to  this  effect. 

Gaston  also   founded  several   almshouses    for   the 


THE  MEDICI.  119 

poor^  and  gave  away  money  very  freely,  so  tliat  if 
his  reign  was  not  a  very  brilliant  one,  it  may  at  least 
be  said  that  he  possessed  some  of  the  qualities  which 
one  expects  to  find  in  a  prince.  He  was  a  queer 
mixture  of  virtue  and  vice,  but  at  his  death  the  peo- 
ple remembered  only  his  goodness  and  the  generous 
use  which  he  made  of  the  money  that  might  have 
been  spent  upon  pomp  and  show. 

His  death  occurred  on  the  9th  of  July,  1737,  and 
was  followed  soon  after  by  that  of  his  sister,  the 
grand  ducal  throne  falling  to  the  Lorraine  branch  of 
the  Hapsburgs.  The  last  of  the  Medici  was  dead, 
and  the  family  which  during  three  centuries  had 
given  Tuscany  so  many  great  politicians  and  a  few 
crowned  monsters,  was  extinct.  The  first  of  them 
were  the  most  illustrious,  giving  to  their  century  the 
title  of  "  The  Age  of  the  ]\[edici."  It  may  be  said 
of  them  that  they  crushed  liberty  and  churned  power 
as  a  right  ;  but  at  all  events  they  did  much  to  com- 
pensate for  their  usurpation.  The  great  period  of 
Florentine  history  is  over,  and  the  narrative  might 
even  have  stopped  short  at  the  death  of  Michael 
Angelo,  but  it  was  as  well  t(.)  follow  to  its  decline  the 
Medici  family. 

The  eighteenth  century  is  almost  a  part  of  con- 
temporary history,  and  during  this  time  Florence 
enjoyed  comparative  prosperity  under  the  Lorraine 
dynasty,  though  the  days  of  bold  initiative  were  over. 
No  fresh  monument  was   added  to  the  list,  but  much 


120  FLOEENCE. 

was  done  in  the  way  of  embellishment  and  improve- 
ment. The  muse  had  folded  her  wings,  and  the  love 
of  ease  militated  against  the  birth  of  any  new  genius. 
The  Florentine  people  preserved,  however,  their 
respect  for  the  past,  and  were  not  incapable  of  admir- 
ing the  capi  d'opere  on  the  Piazza  della  Signoria. 
In  relating,  as  I  have  done,  the  story  of  Florence 
from  the  first  of  the  IMedici  down  to  John  Gaston,  we 
get  a  general  knowledge  of  how  the  city  came  to 
hold  so  high  a  place  in  history.  Much  might  be  said 
about  modern  Florence  as  well,  but  this  is  not  the 
place  for  such  a  study,  dealing  as  I  am  with  the  art 
of  past  ages.  Before  considering  which,  however,  I 
will  endeavor  to  show  how  it  was  that  Florence  be- 
came the  cradle  of  the  Renaissance. 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  121 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  RENAISSANCE. 

It  is  often  asked  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Florence, 
rather  than  any  other  Italian  city,  enjoyed  the  dis- 
tinction of  reviving  in  Europe  the  cidtivation  of 
thought,  of  inspiring  it  with  a  sense  of  the  beautiful, 
of  giving  the  signal  for  progress  in  every  branch 
of  human  knowledge,  and  of  maintaining  for  so  long 
a  period  the  supremacy  over  all  the  other  cities  in  the 
peninsula.  In  other  words,  what,  it  is  asked,  were 
the  causes  and  origin  of  the  Renaissance  ? 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  analyze  very  accurately  so 
vast  and  complex  a  movement  ;  for  if,  on  the  one 
hand,  there  is  something  logical  and  natural  in  this 
wonderfid  development,  the  country  in  which  it  took 
place  must  have  possessed  certain  precious  gifts  which 
seconded  it,  and  there  must  have  been  in  tlie  soil 
which  gave  birth  to  it  a  fertility  which  contributed 
to  the  abundance  of  the  harvest.  Study  and  economy 
were  not  the  only  factors  ;  there  was  a  certain  amount 
of  intuition  and  good  fortune  which  defies  analysis. 
The  mildness  of  the  climate,  the  charm  of  the  atmos- 
phere, the  native  grace  with  which  surrounding 
objects  are  enveloped,  and  an  admixture  of  elegance 


122  FLORENCE. 

and  attractiveness,  all  told  in  favor  of  the  movement 
The  co-efficients  are  manifold ;  some  direct  and  per- 
manent ;  others  indirect,  remote  and  fleeting. 

It  will  be  my  endeavor  to  explain  them  briefly  in 
the  course  of  a  rapid  review  of  the  intellectual  and 
artistic  movements. 

In  his  interesting  book  on  the  Renaissance,  Burck- 
hardt,  in  the  chapter  entitled  '^  The  Renaissance  of 
Antiquity,"  says,  '^  The  social  conditions  of  the  time 
Avould  have  sufficed  of  themselves,  without  the  aid  of 
antiquity,  to  have  raised  the  Italian  nation  to  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  maturity,  just  as  it  is  certain  that  most 
of  the  substantial  innovations  then  introduced  into 
public  life  would  have  taken  place  without  the  same 
aid." 

If  this  assertion  were  correct — and  I  venture  to 
take  exception  to  it,  especiaUy  as  regards  literature 
and  art — we  should  have  to  eliminate  one  of  the 
causes  hitherto  considered  as  among  the  most  power- 
ful, and  to  regard  the  elaboration  of  this  great  work 
as  due  solely  to  Florentine  genius  and  the  political 
and  social  conditions  of  the  time.  It  is  only  fair  to 
add,  however,  that  Burckhardt  acknowledges  that 
antiquity  gave  to  literature  and  art  a  coloring  aU 
their  own,  which  may  easily  be  traced  in  form,  if  not 
in  substance. 

The  renovation,  it  must  be  said,  made  itself  mani- 
fest in  all  directions.  Not  only  was  there  a  return 
to  inteUectual  culture,  inspired  by  the   discovery  of 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  123 

ancient  works  of  literature  and  philosophy^  but  it 
seems  as  if  the  lost  sense  of  plastic  beauty  had  been 
recovered  at  the  same  time. 

The  constant  struggle  for  independence,  for  the 
liberty  of  association  which  was  the  most  powerful 
lever  in  the  might  of  Florence,  for  the  political  au- 
tonomy of  the  city,  and  for  the  possession  of  com- 
munal rights,  kept  all  the  citizens  interested  in  public 
affairs,  compelling  high  and  low  alike  to  put  forth  a 
certain  amount  of  activity,  intellectual  as  Avell  as 
physical,  and  impressing  them  with  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal responsibility.  From  an  early  age  each  citizen 
of  Florence  belonged  to  some  group  and  became  the 
soldier  of  an  idea,  being  liable  to  be  summoned  at 
a  moment's  notice  to  the  defence  of  his  banner  and 
of  the  disregarded  rights  of  his  corporation. 

All  this  tended  to  create  originality  and  indepen- 
dence of  character,  and  to  excite  a  spirit  of  indi- 
vidualism. The  power  of  a  democracy,  manifold  as 
are  its  dangers,  has  this  good  side — that  it  does  not 
impose  a  common  yoke  on  all,  and  does  not  put  any 
other  limit  on  individual  ambition  than  that  of  the 
individual's  capacities  and  energy.  Upon  the  other 
hand,  there  was  an  apparent  incompatibility  between 
the  constant  political  agitation  which  prevailed  during 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  and  the 
germinating  of  fruitful  ideas  and  the  development  of 
a  nascent  civilization.  Tliis  is  a  point  to  which  I 
shall  often  have  occasion  to  refer,  though  it  is  per- 


124  FLORENCE. 

haps  impossible  to  define  the  precise  causes  of  it. 
How  was  it  that  the  Renaissance  succeeded  in  taking 
root  amid  these  constant  struggles,  instead  of  being 
choked  at  its  birth  ?  How  came  it  that  while  Pisa, 
Siena,  and  Perugia  were  being  deluged  with  blood, 
artists  and  thinkers  were  able  to  work  in  peace  I 

Kot  only  in  Florence,  but  throughout  Italy — in 
Venice  Avith  its  Senate  and  Grand  Council,  in  Milan 
with  the  Sforzas,  in  Mantua  Avith  the  Gonzagas,  in 
Ferrara  Avith  the  Estes,  in  Urbino  Avith  the  Monte- 
feltros,  in  Rimini  Avith  ^Malatesta,  in  Naples  AAith 
Robert  and  Alfonso,  and  at  the  Vatican  AA'ith  the 
Popes — AA^as  this  phenomenon  manifested  ;  and  AA'hile 
neighboring  states  AA-ere  at  Avar  AA'ith  one  another, 
poets,  painters,  and  philosophers  folloAved  their  peace- 
ful pursuits,  and  CA'en  tyrants,  as  thej  Avere  called, 
did  not  disdain  to  compete  for  the  laurel  crown. 

The  true  reason  of  it  all  lies  in  the  fact  that  Italy 
did  not  liaA'e  to  make  the  same  effort  as  the  other 
nations  of  Europe  to  escape  from  the  state  of 
torpor  into  AAdiich  all  had  sunk  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
It  Avould  be  no  difficult  matter  to  AA'rite  a  history  of 
the  five  or  six  centuries  AA'hich  followed  the  iuA^asion 
of  the  Barbarians ;  but  this  period,  dark  as  it  AA^as 
throughout  the  rest  of  Europe,  Avas  not  AA'ithout  its 
glory  for  Italy.  The  monuments  Avith  AA'hich  Rome 
had  coA'ered  the  land  Avere  still  standing :  she  still 
existed,  like  a  fire  of  AA-hich  the  smouldering  embers 
alone  remain,  and  Avhich  no  sa\'age  incursions  could 


THE  REXAISSA^X'E.  125 

quite  extinguish.  All  her  triumphal  arches,  baths, 
votive  columns,  pantheons,  amphitheatres,  and  tem- 
ples still  raised  their  heads,  though  entwined  with 
creepers,  which  gave  a  new  and  additional  beauty  to 
these  old  ruins,  showing  how  great  must  once  have 
been  that  grandeur,  the  remembrance  of  which  comes 
powerfully  back  to  us  in  every  moment  of  quiet  re- 
flection. It  Avas  the  connecting  link  between  Italy 
of  the  past  and  new  Italy.  The  grandeur  of  the  past 
coidd  but  raise  hopes  for  the  splendor  of  the  future. 
Greece,  Avhicli  had  been  subdued  and  then  exacted 
vengeance  by  imposing  her  intellectual  yoke  on  her 
fierce  conqueror,  was  something  more  than  a  mere 
geographical  expression,  a  vague  ideal,  a  land  of 
sentiment,  in  which  at  one  period  human  thought  had 
enshrined  itself.  It  was  for  the  Italians  a  living  real- 
ity, a  friendly  and  neighboring  land,  which  they  could 
see  far  away  on  the  horizon  of  the  Adriatic  sloping 
shorewards  with  its  pale  blue  hills.  Each  day  ships 
arrived  from  the  Hellespont,  their  sails  full  in  the 
breeze  and  edged  with  red,  recalling  in  shape  and 
color  the  ships  of  antiquity.  The  South  of  Italy  was 
down  to  a  recent  period  known  as  Magna  Griccia,  and 
colonized  by  those  who  had  come  from  the  opposite 
shore,  and  there  flourished  in  Calabria  and  other  parts 
of  Sicily  a  civilization  of  which  traces  are  to  be  found 
everyAvhere.  If  Christianity  had  proscribed  every- 
thing which  recalled  paganism,  the  traditions  at  least 
remained,  and  every  day  further  traces  of  civilization 


126  FLORENCE. 

were  discovered  in  proportion  as  this  cliosen  race  was 
found  to  have  established  itself  in  the  most  remote  vil- 
lages. These  two  influences — the  Latin  and  the  Greek 
— had  conjointly  saved  Italy  from  total  ruin  from  an 
intellectual  point  of  view  ;  and  the  Florentines  were 
more  open  than  any  of  their  neighbors  to  the  influ- 
ences of  culture  for  the  most  industrious  and  gifted 
of  the  colonies  founded  in  the  peninsula  before  the 
Romans,  had  left  upon  the  soil  of  that  country  evi- 
dent traces  of  their  existence,  not  to  speak  of  art 
monuments  which  are  even  still  worthy  to  be  com- 
pared with  those  of  Greece  or  of  Florence  in  the  fif- 
teenth century. 

When  Italy  had  been  conquered,  Theodoric, 
Charlemagne,  and  Lothaire  did  not  fail  to  encourage 
intellectual  progress  and  anything  Avhich  made  for 
civilization.  In  the  eighth  century  was  promulgated 
Lothairc's  edict,  in  Avhich,  following  the  traditions  of 
Charlemagne,  he  provided  for  the  formation  of  schools 
at  Pavia,  Ivr^ea,  Cremona,  Turin,  Florence,  Termo, 
and  Vincenza ;  and  there  was  spiritual  light  even  in 
the  darkness  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries. 
The  monks  of  the  Abbey  of  Monte  Cassino  furthered 
this  development  of  learning  by  copying  Aristotle, 
Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Horace,  Virgil,  and  Lucretius ; 
and  throughout  the  whole  of  Southern  Italy  the  Latin 
poets  were  read  in  the  Roman  amphitheatres,  while 
in  the  Forum  of  Trajan  men  of  letters  woidd  read 
extracts  from  the  classic  authors  to  the  Senate,  who 


THE  REXAISSA>XE.  127 

conferred  on  the  most  successful  competitor  a  floral 
crown  and  a  cloth  of  gold.  The  Latin  tongue,  which 
was  in  itself  a  means  of  civilization,  being  as  it  were 
the  key  to  the  lofty  conceptions  and  writings  of  the 
ancient  authors,  was  in  pretty  general  use  during  the 
first  part  of  the  Renaissance,  and  sermons  were 
preached  in  Latin  in  many  of  the  Tuscan  churches. 
Nor  'was  respect  for  ancient  literature  the  monopoly 
of  a  sect  or  of  a  religious  body ;  it  was  an  article  of 
popular  faith.  A  proof  of  this  is  given  us  at  Mantua, 
where  tlie  statue  of  Virgil  was  decorated  with  flowers, 
like  the  altar  of  a  god  ;  and  at  Brindisi,  where  the  poet's 
house  was  shown  to  strangers  Avith  legitimate  pride. 
Dante,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  acknowledged  Vir- 
gil as  his  master  in  the  line — 

"Tu  se'lo  mio  maestro  e  lo  mio  autore  ;" 

and  he  also  did  much  to  extend  the  knowledge  of 
Homer,  Horace,  Ovid,  and  Lucanus,  and  of  the  great- 
est Greek  writers  of  their  day. 

But  the  influence  of  Rome  was  predominant  over 
Dante,  and  he  regarded  the  inhabitants  as  his  ances- 
tors, ''  the  Roman  people  being,"  to  use  his  own  ex- 
pression, ^^  the  first-born  of  the  Italian  family." 

The  Latin  tongue  had  never  been  lost,  though  it 
had  been  corrupted  by  the  admixture  of  barbarisms. 
Two  men  of  genius,  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  endeav- 
ored to  revive  the  Greek  language,  and  their  efforts 
were  not  altogether  in  vain.     Petrarch  jealously  pre- 


128  FLORENCE. 

sers^ecT  a  MS.  of  Sophocles  in  the  origmal  Greek, 
Avhich  he  coiild  not  reacl^  and  it  seemed  to  him  as  if 
the  letters^  of  which  he  was  miable  to  miderstand  the 
meaning,  emitted  rays  of  light  full  of  fascination. 
It  had  been  given  him  by  Leonce  Pilate,  a  pupil 
of  Bernardo  Barlaam,  a  Calabrian  monk  sent  to 
Avignon  as  an  ambassador  to  the  Pope,  and  who 
Avas  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  study  of  Greek  in 
the  AVest. 

Boccaccio,  more  fortunate  than  Petrarch,  was  able 
to  read  the  Iliad  in  the  original  with  the  help  of  a 
Latin  translation,  and  having  in  1360  received  Leonce 
Pilate  into  his  house,  he  induced  the  Signoria  to  es- 
tablish a  public  professorship  for  him  to  explain  the 
Iliad,  the  Odyssey,  and  sixteen  of  Plato's  Dialogues. 

This  is  a  date  to  be  remembered,  for  the  secret  of 
the  superiority  of  Florence  in  the  plastic  arts  is  cer- 
tainly to  be  found  in  the  study  she  gave  to  the  an- 
cient monuments,  while  her  intellectual  superiority  is 
not  less  certainly  due  to  the  discovery  and  diffusion 
of  the  MSS.  of  ancient  writers.  The  manifestation 
of  the  genius  of  Dante,  though  he  expressed  himself 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  was  in  a  measure  brought  about 
by  these  influences  seemingly  so  remote. 

It  may  naturally  be  asked  how  it  came  to  pass  that 
while  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  Greek  was  spoken  at 
Rome,  even  by  women  who  prided  themselves  on 
their  intellectual  superiority,  that  language  fell  into 
disuse,  and  was   soon  unknown  to  all  save  a  select 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  129 

few.  Tlic  influence  of  Greek  pliilosopliy  and  litera- 
ture in  Italy  continued  to  increase  under  the  Anto- 
nines ;  Marcus  Aurelius  wrote  liis  '^  Maxims "  in 
Greekj  and  two  centuries  later  the  Emperor  Julian 
used  it  in  preference  to  his  own  language  in  his  de- 
fence of  Polytheism. 

The  heaviest  blow  to  Greek  influence  in  the  West 
was  dealt  by  Christianity  previous  to  the  Barbarian 
invasion.  The  superb  temples  built  in  honor  of  the 
three  thousand  divinities,  ''  among  whom  there  was 
not  a  single  atheist/'  and  the  charm  of  the  writings 
of  the  great  heathen  authors,  testified  too  strongly  to 
the  unquestionable  superiority  of  ancient  genius  to 
be  left  intact.  Temples  were  destroyed,  images  were 
broken,  the  gods  were  proscribed  5  and  the  intellectual 
level  of  society  had  sunk  so  low  that  no  one  rose  to 
protest  against  this  destruction  of  monuments  of  art 
and  of  Greek  literature.  The  imagination  reels  at 
the  thought  of  these  holocausts  ofl*ered  up  on  the  altar 
of  the  true  God,  the  more  so  as  it  was  not  the  out- 
come of  sudden  violence,  as  when  the  Arabs  invaded 
Asia,  but  a  methodical  system  not  less  f^itai  in  its  re- 
sults. A  few  elevated  minds  may  have  risen  supe- 
rior to  pi'cjudice,  and  found  the  ])ractice  of  the  new 
creed  not  incompatible  Avitli  an  adniiratictn  for  ^Eschy- 
lus,  Sophocles,  Euri})ides,  Xenophon,  Aristotle,  and 
Plato ;  but  St.  Jerome  himself,  though  he  did  not 
commit  their  writings  to  the  flames,  would  not  read 
them.     The  work  of  destruction  was   completed  by 

9 


130  FLOEENCK 

the  official  and  infallible  judgment  of  the  Holy  See, 
for  in  the  Council  held  at  Carthage  all  prelates  were 
forbidden  to  read  the  heathen  writers^  and  from  that 
time  aU  intellectual  relation  betvreen  Greeks  and 
Latins  was  at  an  end,  tlie  Greek  tongue,  in  which  so 
many  immortal  works  had  been  written,  soon  becom- 
ing unintelligible. 

The  transfer  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  Constanti- 
nople was  followed  by  the  Barbarian  inyasion  of  Italy ; 
but  Greek  literature  found  a  temporary  home  at 
Rayenna,  on  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  the  last 
refuge  of  the  poAyer  of  the  Roman  Emperors,  from 
Theodoric,  King  of  the  Goths,  whose  intellectual 
qualities  were  for  aboye  those  of  his  followers. 

A  few  of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  also  extended 
their  patronage  to  Greek  Hterature,  and  a  hundred 
years  after  Theodoric's  day  the  Roman  schools  which 
had  been  closed  during  tlie  inyasion  were  reopened. 
The  Church,  howeyer,  still  regarded  the  language  and 
literature  of  Greece  as  tending  to  heresy,  and  the 
Latin  tongue,  which  alone  was  taught,  had  become 
too  corrupted  by  Bar])arian  idioms  for  the  study  of 
its  literature  to  be  general. 

While  the  West  was  thus  relapsing  into  darkness,  it 
is  interesting  to  see  how  far  the  East  had  preserved  the 
precious  patrimony  handed  doAvn  to  it. 

In  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  the  separation 
took  place,  and  Constantinople  became  the  scene  of 
religious  rpiarrels  and  heresies^  the  Greeks  imitating 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  131 

the  conduct  of  Christian  bishops,  and  destroying  in 
their  turn  the  manuscripts  of  Menandcr,  Diphikis, 
Apollodorus,  Philemon,  Alexis,  Sappho,  Corinna, 
Anacreon,  Mimnermus,  Bion,  Alcman,  and  iUca^us, 
in  the  interests  of  religion.  There  remained  a  few 
historians  of  talent,  commentators,  geographers,  and 
doctors,  but  not  a  single  poet  of  note,  and  the  deca- 
dence of  literature  followed  close  upon  the  political 
collapse. 

A  similar  scourge  to  that  which  brought  about  the 
downfall  of  civilization  in  the  West  was  about  to  com- 
plete the  Avork  of  destruction  in  Greece.  In  the 
twelfth  century  the  Arabs  took  possession  of  all  the 
Greek  colonies  in  Asia  and  Africa,  and  their  invasion 
led  gradually  to  the  suppression  of  the  Greek  tongue, 
the  use  of  which  was  confined  to  Greece  strictly  so 
called. 

It  Avas  not,  however,  the  Caliph  Omar  who  burned 
the  library  of  the  Ptolemys,  for  this  had  already  been 
done  by  the  soldiers  of  Caesar,  and  the  Serapeum, 
which  had  escaped  when  Alexandria  was  captured  by 
the  Roman  general,  was  sacked  by  Theodosius.  It 
may  even  be  argued  that,  setting  aside  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  Koran  for  the  Bible,  and  the  suppression 
of  the  Greek  tongue,  the  Arabs  under  Haroun-cl- 
Raschid  played  a  civiHzing  part.  But  there  was 
worse  to  come;  and  when  the  Ottoman  Turks,  hav- 
ing vanquished  the  Arabs  in  Asia,  advanced  upon 
Europe  and  threatened  even  to  dislodge  the  Greek 


132  FLOKENCE. 

language  from  the  islands  in  which  it  had  found  a  last 
refuge,  it  was  Christianity  which  came  to  the  rescue. 
In  order  to  atone  for  the  destruction  of  the  ancient 
authors,  it  brought  to  the  West  the  writings  of  the 
Church  Fathers,  and  Greek  became  the  liturgical 
tongue  of  the  Eastern  Church.  AVhen  the  whole 
territory  had  fallen  beneath  the  yoke  of  the  Mussid- 
mans,  the  West  became  a  refuge  for  those  exiles,  who 
may  tridy  be  called  the  real  initiators  of  the  Eenais- 
sance. 

Before  the  capture  of  Constantinople,  which  dis- 
persed the  last  of  the  Greek  savants,  the  Byzantine 
emperors,  threatened  by  the  Turks,  endeavored  to 
make  friends  in  the  Latin  world,  and  to  bring  about 
a  conciliation  of  the  Churches.  In  a  Council  held  at 
Vienna  in  1311,  anxious  to  create  a  bond  of  union 
between  the  two  Churches,  the  Bishops  ordered  that 
Latin  should  be  taught  in  a  certain  number  of  Italian 
towns.  Upon  the  other  hand,  the  monks  of  the  order 
of  St.  Basilius,  who  were  established  in  Calabria,  em- 
ployed Greek  in  their  liturgy,  and  were  much  in- 
terested in  effecting  the  reconciliation  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Churches,  while  they  were  among  the 
most  hearty  promoters  of  the  study  of  Greek. 

The  Calabrian  monk,  Bernardo  Barlaam  of  Semi- 
nara,  who  acted  as  teacher  to  Petrarch,  had  been  one 
of  the  intermediaries  between  the  two  Churches,  and 
this  explains  his  presence  at  the  Papal  Court  at  Avig- 
non.    The  lirst  pubHc  chair  of  Greek  was  founded 


THE  11E^^AISSA>'CE.  133 

by  his  pnpll  Pilate  at  Florence  in  1360,  at  wliich 
time,  as  we  find  from  Petrarch's  letters,  there  were 
not  ten  people  in  Italy  who  could  read  Homer,  even 
in  the  Latin  translation. 

Soon  after  this  ]\Ianuel  Chrysoloras  came  to  seek 
the  succor  of  Italy  against  the  Turks,  and  was  per- 
suaded to  occupy  the  chair  left  vacant  by  Pilate.  He 
lectured  at  jMilan,  Paris,  and  Rome  ;  wrote  a  Greek 
grammar ;  and  having  found  in  Palla  Strozzi  (1372- 
1462)  a  liberal  patron,  who  would  help  him  to  pro- 
pagate his  ideas,  got  from  Constantinople  as  many 
Greek  manuscripts  as  he  could,  and  revealed  to  the 
West  the  works  of  Plato  and  Plutarch,  the  politics 
of  Aristotle,  and  the  geography  of  Ptolemy. 

It  was  Florence  that  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the 
study  of  Greek  by  the  creation  of  the  chair  occupied 
by  Pilate  in  1360,  and  from  that  date  the  progress 
was  very  rapid.  Guarini  of  Verona  succeeded  Chrys- 
oloras, and  when  Cosimo  the  Elder  had  driven  Strozzi 
into  exile,  he  continued  to  encourage  the  study  of 
Greek.  Leonardo  Bruni  Aretino,  another  pupil  of 
Chrysoloras,  translated  Aristotle's  "Ethics,"  the  "Dis- 
courses" of  jEschines,  and  the  "First  Punic  War" 
of  Polybius,  Avhile  Kiccolo  (1363-1437)  created  a  new 
science — that  of  philological  criticism.  The  Floren- 
tines were  not  content  with  possessing  the  mere  texts, 
but  did  their  best  to  have  them  in  their  primitive  ac- 
curacy and  to  make  the  most  out  of  them.  Thus  we 
reach  the  zenith  of  the  movement,  brought  about  by 


134  FLORENCE. 

the  presence  of  the  iHcany  Greeks  who  came  to  attend 
the  Council  at  Florence^  and  afterwards  by  the  emi- 
gration Avhich  folloAved  on  the  capture  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks.  George  of  Trebizond,  Theo- 
doras Gaza,  Argyropulos,  Gemistes  Pletho,  and 
Aurispa  (who  himself  brought  back  to  Florence,  from 
his  journey  in  the  East,  232  Greek  manuscripts), 
preceded  IVIarcilio  Ficino  and  the  Academy  of  Plato, 
which  held  its  meetings  in  the  Careggi  Gardens  under 
the  presidency  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  and  Poli- 
tian. 

Before  showing  how  Florence  carried  all  Italy  Avith 
her,  and  giving  an  idea  of  what  the  movement  was 
in  Florence  itself  Avhen  that  city  reached  its  apogee 
under  Lorenzo,  we  must  cast  a  look  backwards  at 
the  parallel  influences  Avhich  had  their  place  in  the 
composition  of  Florentine  genius.  It  is  necessary  to 
mark  also  how  the  vulgar  tongue  was  slowly  evolved; 
composed  like  a  bouquet  of  flowers  of  the  choicest 
and  most  appropriate  expressions  from  the  various 
dialects  of  Italy,  and  forming  the  new  language  in 
which  Dante,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  wrote  his 
immortal  poem. 

The  constitution  of  an  exarchate  at  Eavenna, 
which  lasted  until  the  eighth  century,  caused  Byzan- 
tine influences  to  predominate  throughout  Tuscany ; 
and  though  it  is  difficult  to  say  precisely  how  far  they 
prevailed  in  literature,  Ave  have  the  clearest  evidence 
of  their  existence  in  the  plastic  arts.     In  the  baptis- 


THE  KENAISSANCE.  135 

tery  of  S<an  Giovanni,  one  of  the  most  ancient  mon- 
nmcnts  of  Florence,  the  ornamentation  of  the  ceiling 
Ls  unmistakably  Greek,  reminding  one  of  the  mosaics 
in  the  tomb  of  Galla  Placidia  at  Ravenna  and  the 
beautiful  mosaics  of  San  Vitale,  where  the  Empress 
Theodora,  painted  like  a  courtesan,  and  the  Emperor 
Justinian,  are  represented  in  the  midst  of  an  Oriental 
Court,  composed  of  eunuchs,  Nubians,  and  Persians. 
It  was  Cimabue,  the  first  leader  of  the  Florentine 
school,  who  shook  off  the  yoke  of  Byzantine  influ- 
ences, and  brought  the  artists  of  his  day  back  to  the 
study  of  nature. 

In  sculpture  Niccolo  Pisano  and  other  natives  of 
Pisa  led  the  way,  though  it  is  only  just  to  add  that 
they  took  their  inspiration  from  national  art,  and 
learned  much  from  the  sarcophagi  of  Pisa,  which  had 
been  carved  two  centuries  before  the  Christian  era 
by  the  Roman  sculptors  of  whom  Strabo  wrote  in 
such  eidogistic  terms. 

The  art  and  the  science  of  the  Arabs,  their  un- 
rivalled taste,  and  their  thorough  though  limited  work- 
manship, also  exercised  an  unquestionable  influence 
on  the  movement.  Masters  of  Italy  from  the  ninth 
to  the  eleventh  century,  they  could  not  fail  to  impress 
something  of  their  style  and  characteristics — their  love 
of  color,  their  liking  for  rich  materials  and  complex 
decoration — upon  those  with  whom  they  were  in 
constant  communication  at  all  the  ports  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. 


136  FLOKENCE. 

The  Arabs  were  especially  fond  of  richly  chased 
armor^  delicately  Avrought  jewels,  brilliant  enamels, 
embossed  leathers,  and  elaborately  caparisoned  horses ; 
and,  accustomed  to  camp  life,  they  were  wont,  even 
in  times  of  peace,  to  trace  the  images  of  Avar;  thus  the 
jousts  and  tournaments  for  which  Italy  became  fa- 
mous derived  much  of  their  splendor  from  the  im- 
itation, conscious  or  unconscious,  of  these  Arab  pag- 
eants. 

The  House  of  Swabia,  when  it  had  claimed  the 
throne  of  the  Eoman  Caisars,  never  exercised  more 
than  a  nominal  and  intermittent  authority  over  Italy, 
and  its  genius  differed  so  fundamentally  from  that  of 
the  Tuscans  that  the  traces  which  it  left  behind  it 
were  very  faint.  Personal  energy  of  character,  how- 
ever, has  always  had  great  influence  in  Italy,  and  the 
remarkable  cultivation  of  Frederick  Barbarossa's  de- 
scendant, Frederick  II.,  had  a  Avide-spreading  effect. 
His  reign  Avas  the  prologue  of  the  Renaissance,  and 
he  probably  had  something  to  do  Avith  the  tendency 
shoAvn  by  the  Florentines  to  shake  off  all  religious 
influence  in  the  Avork  of  civilization.  He  leaned  to 
the  side  of  the  Arabs  rather  than  of  the  Eomans,  and 
this  sufficed  to  raise  an  accusation  of  atheism  against 
him.  He  founded  the  University  of  Naples  in  1224, 
spoke  Italian,  French,  Greek,  and  Arabic,  Avas  a  poet 
and  a  dandy,  and  AA-as  so  exempt  from  prejudice  that 
he  admitted  Arabs,  hoAvever  poor,  to  his  Court  if  they 
Avere    distinguished    in   literature    or    science.      His 


THE  KENAISS ANCE.  137 

secretary  was  a  Mussulman,  his  doctor  a  Spanish 
Jew,  and  his  metaphysician  an  Enghshman,  jMiehael 
Scotus.  The  spirit  of  tolerance  Avhich  he  displayed 
is  one  of  the  distinctive  marks  of  the  Eenaissance, 
and  this  was  why  the  movement  was  held  in  suspic- 
ion by  a  few  extreme  sectaries. 

The  Xormans,  who  had  gained  possession  of  j\Iagna 
Grsecia,  driving  out  the  Byzantines  and  Saracens, 
capturing  Messina,  Catania,  and  Palermo,  and  found- 
ing dynasties  in  Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  siding 
at  one  time  with  the  Pope  and  at  another  Avith  the 
Emperor,  were  beyond  doubt  a  valiant  race ;  but 
they  were  less  apt  to  receive  than  to  impress  upon 
others  any  intellectual  influence.  The  singular  monu- 
ments which  they  have  left  at  Lucera,  Canosa,  and 
Venosa  do  no  more  than  attest  to  the  reality  of  the  con- 
quests made  by  Roger,  Robert  Guiscard,  the  sons  of 
Tancred  of  Hauteville,  and  the  heroes  of  "  Jerusalem 
Delivered,"  and  it  is  evident,  when  one  examines  the 
shape  and  character  of  these  works  of  art,  that  those 
who  reared  them  Avere  dominated  by  the  influence  of 
what  they  had  seen  among  the  Arabs  whom  they  had 
been  combating  in  the  East.  The  Normans  made 
no  attempt  to  alter  the  course  of  the  civilization, 
higher  than  their  own,  Avhich  they  found  in  these 
provinces,  and  it  must  be  said  to  their  credit  that 
they  left  the  holders  of  the  soil  in  possession  of  their 
legal  rights,  the  two  races  living  side  by  side  in  per- 
fect peace ;    so  much  so,  that  when  they  were  sue- 


138  FLOEENCK 

ceeded  by  Frederick   II.  the   Arab  civilization  was 
found  intact. 

The  troubadours,  driven  from  France  bv  the  cru- 
sade against  the  iUbigenses,  also  had  some  influence 
upon  the  genius  not  only  of  Italy,  but  of  Florence. 
This  is  proved  by  the  frequent  imitations  of  their 
works,  and  the  language  of  Florence  teemed  with 
expressions  and  idioms  borrowed  from  the  tongue  of 
Provence. 

Three  sovereigns  of  Southern  Italy  wrote  poems 
ill  that  tonguCj  and  the  troubadours  also  inculcated 
upon  the  Italians  a  chivalrous  regard  for  the  female 
sex,  and  that  predilection  for  fine-drawn  arguments 
which  later  degenerated  into  the  Concetti. 

These  are  the  main  influences  and  the  various 
causes  which  brought  about  the  Renaissance,  and 
apart  from  them  all  the  rest  is  due  to  the  peculiar 
genius  of  Florence,  to  the  national  temperament,  and 
to  circumstances  of  race  and  politics.  Much  might 
be  said,  too,  of  the  gradual  formation  of  the  vulgar 
tongue,  and  of  its  employment  as  the  universal  vehicle 
of  thought  throughout  Italy  wdien  it  came  to  be  used 
by  Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  and  the  many  other 
great  writers  who  preceded  Machiavelli,  Guicciardini, 
and  the  learned  men  who  discussed  antiquity  with 
Cosimo  and  Lorenzo  beneath  the  wide-spreading  trees 
of  Careggi. 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  139 


CHAPTER    IV. 

ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES. 

I  MUST  now,  turning  aside  from  the  Renaissance 
movement,  say  something  about  the  men  who  con- 
tributed the  most  towards  its  development,  not  only 
in  Florence  and  throughout  Tuscany,  but  at  Rome  as 
well,  whither  many  of  them  were  summoned  by  the 
popes  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

I  will  only  speak  of  those  who  Avere  born  in  Flor- 
ence itself,  though  to  many  who  were  natives  of  other 
parts  of  Italy  that  city  was  a  second  home.  Upon 
the  other  hand,  it  will  be  seen  that  a  native  of  Tus- 
cany, Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Avho  takes  rank  Avitli  Dante 
and  Michael  Angclo,  was  almost  a  stranger  in  his  own 
country,  which  possesses  none  of  his  greatest  works, 
and  he  is  even  claimed  as  one  of  their  own  by  another 
school.  The  name  of  those  men  of  genius,  exclusive 
of  the  artists,  who  gave  Florence  her  unrivalled  posi- 
tion, is  Legion,  beginning  with  Dante  and  ending 
with  Galileo.  The  most  illustrious  Avere  Petrarch, 
Boccaccio,  ^Lnrcilio  Ficino,  Pico  della  Mirandola, 
Machiavelli,  Brunelleschi,  Politian,  Alberti,  Savona- 
rola— that  is  to  say,  historians,  poets,  artists,  and 
philosophers — Avhile   inferior   to  them  in  talent,  but 


140  FLORENCE. 

still  worthy  of  mention  as  having  taken  part  in  the 
great  movement  of  the  time,  are  Coluccio  Salutati, 
Passavanti,  Giovanni  Villani,  Franco  Sacchetti,  Bon- 
accorso  Pitti,  Poggio  Bracciolini,  Agnolo  Pandolfini, 
Traversari,  Alamanni,  Benivieni,  Burchiello,  Rinuc- 
cini,  Acciaiuoli,  Panormita,  Pulci,  Cristoforo  Landino, 
Guicciardini,  and  the  grand  secretaries  of  the  Repub- 
lic, Leonardo  Brmii  and  Carlo  Marsuppini.  I  will 
endeavor  to  describe  the  special  characteristics  and 
individual  part  played  by  each  one  of  these  in  the 
mighty  movement  of  his  age. 

The  most  illustrious  thinkers  and  writers  of  the 
fifteenth  century  remain,  so  to  speak,  unknown,  so 
far  as  their  fleshly  representation  goes,  for  very  few 
portraits  were  painted  in  those  days.  The  beautiful 
but  stern  face  of  Dante  was,  however,  handed  down 
to  posterity  by  Giotto  in  a  fresco  unfortunately  so 
dimmed  by  age  and  blurred  by  an  inartistic  restora- 
tion that  the  features  are  very  indistinct.  There  is 
a  fresco  of  Pico  della  IMirandola  as  a  child  by  Luini ; 
and  Alberti,  who  was  the  friend  of  many  of  the  medal- 
lionists,  lives  in  the  likeness  of  him  by  Matteo  da 
Pasti ;  in  another  at  Rimini,  over  the  tomb  of  Sigis- 
mund  Malatesta ;  and  in  two  bronzes,  one  presented 
to  the  Louvre  Gallery  by  His  de  la  Salle,  and  the 
other  in  the  Dreyfus  Collection. 

The  great  medallionists  of  the  fifteenth  century 
have  transmitted  to  us  the  features  of  Cosimo  the 
Elder^  Lorenzo,  and  of  several  other  members  of  the 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  141 

Medici  family,  and  there  are  still  extant  some  very 
perfect  busts  by  Benedetto  da  Majano^  Mino  da  Fie- 
sole,  Desiderio  da  Settignano,  and  Benvenuto  Cellini. 
But  from  contemporary  art  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term,  from  which  one  would  prefer  to  have  the  por- 
traits of  all  these  cclcbritiesj  there  is  bnt  little  to  be 
derived.  The  lifteenth  century  cannot,  as  I  have 
said,  boast  of  any  portrait  painters  except  Piero 
della  Francesca  and  Pollaiolo  ;  though  fifty  years 
afterwards,  when  the  art  of  printing,  recently  dis- 
covered, favored  the  spread  of  learning,  a  few  artists 
illustrated  the  biographies  which  were  published. 
The  sixteenth  century  gives  us  a  wider  choice  of 
subjects,  the  Pitti  and  Uffizi  Palaces  containing 
many  pictures  by  contemporary  masters,  those  by 
Bronzino  being  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  Medici 
family  ;  while  a  careful  search  of  the  principal  collec- 
tions, museums,  and  libraries  in  Europe  reveals  like- 
nesses of  the  most  celebrated  masters  and  artists  of 
the  day. 

DANTE. 
(12G5-132L) 

Dante,  as  is  well  known,  died  in  exile,  and  the 
monument  afterwards  erected  to  him  by  the  people 
of  Florence  in  the  Pantheon  of  Santa  Croce  does  not 
contain  his  bones  j  while  the  tomb  at  Ravenna  in 
which  he  is  buried  Avas  only  built  after  his  death  by  a 
Venetian,  the  proveditore  of  Ravenna,  as  an  homage 
to  the  greatest  of  Italian  poets.     Cacciaguida,  whose 


142  FLOIlE^XE. 

name  is  recorded  in  the  history  of  Tuscany  as  hav- 
ing taken  part  in  the  Crusade  of  11-1:7,  had  a  son 
Alighieri,  and  he  in  1265  became  the  father  of  the 
future  author  of  the  '^  Divine  Comedy." 

An  ancient  custom  prevailed  in  Florence  of  cele- 
brating the  coming  of  May  every  year — a  subject 
treated  by  many  of  the  miniature  painters  of  the 
time,  under  the  title  of  "  Primavera."  On  May-day 
the  whole  city  kept  holiday.  The  maidens,  arrayed 
in  white  and  with  the  ^May  blossoms  in  their  hands, 
formed  long  processions  and  danced  on  the  sprouting 
grass,  the  young  men  joining  in  the  pastime ;  and 
while  the  first  day  of  summer  was  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin,  the  return  of  fine  Aveather  and  the  budding 
of  the  flowers  was  celebrated  after  the  ancient  rites. 
It  was  on  a  May-day  that  Alighieri  took  his  son  to 
the  house  of  a  neighbor,  Folco  de  Portinari,  who  had 
invited  all  the  children  of  his  friends.  Here  it  was 
that  he  met  Beatrice,  then  only  nine  years  of  age, 
gay  and  beautiful  in  her  childish  fashion,  and  he  re- 
ceived her  image  into  his  heart  with  so  much  affec- 
tion that  it  never  again  departed  from  him.  Eigh- 
teen years  afterwards  he  wrote  the  '^  Vita  Xuova," 
and  Beatrice  had  died  in  the  flower  of  youth.  FiJl 
of  melancholy,  oppressed  by  persecution,  and  sur- 
rounded by  enemies,  he  collected  his  thoughts  about 
him  to  record  the  recollections  of  the  beautifid  vision 
in  which  she  appeared  to  him  ^^  clothed  in  noble  crim- 
son," simple,  candid,  and  gentle.     He  tells  us  how  to 


House  of  Dante. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  143 

look  at  lier  made  a  man  pure  and  good^  and  tliis 
youthful  passion  shed  its  influence  upon  his  whole 
future  life. 

Dante  lost  his  father  in  childhood.  He  studied  under 
the  celebrated  Brunetto  Latini,  the  secretary  of  the 
commune  and  the  author  of  the  ^'  Tesoro  '^  and  the 
^*  Tesoretto.''  At  eighteen  the  poetic  instinct  awoke 
in  him^  and  later  he  wrote  that  strange  love-dream  of 
which  Beatrice  was  the  heroine.  He  related  his 
dream  to  several  of  the  master-poets  of  the  day, 
some  of  them,  such  as  Guide  Cavalcanti  and  Cino  da 
Pistoia,  replying  to  him  in  kindly  and  encouraging 
terms,  while  one  or  two,  including  Dante  da  ^Majano, 
treated  him  as  moon-struck,  and  advised  him  to  take 
a  dose  of  hellebore. 

From  1283  to  1289  Dante  wrote  almost  inces- 
santly, conscious  of  his  own  powers,  and  having 
already,  we  are  told,  conceived  the  plan  of  the  work 
which  was  to  immortalize  his  name.  But  he  Avas 
oppressed  by  melancholy,  often  retiring  into  the  con- 
vent of  the  Benedictines,  and  meditating,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, the  assumj)tion  of  holy  orders.  Political 
disturbances,  however,  called  him  back  to  practical 
life,  and  as  this  was  a  time  when  it  was  necessary  for 
a  man  to  side  Avith  one  or  other  of  tlio  contendinjr 
factions,  he  enrolled  himself  beneath  the  banner  of 
the  Guelphs,  and  in  1289  was  present  at  the  battle 
of  Campaldino  and  the  victory  of  Arezzo. 

Veri  de  Cerchi,  the  ca})tain  of  the  Florentine  horse, 


144  FLORENCE. 

before  the  engagement  became  general^  decided  that 
twelve  picked  men  should  attack  the  enemy^  and  as 
those  who  took  part  in  this  attack  were  almost  cer- 
tain to  fall^  he  named  first  himself^  then  his  son^  and 
then  his  two  nephews,  calling  upon  '"'  those  who  love 
their  country  to  come  forward  and  prove  it  by  mak- 
ing up  the  required  number."  A  hundred  and  fifty 
men  volunteered,  and  among  these  Avas  Dante. 

Upon  the  9th  of  June,  1290,  Dante,  then  five-and- 
twenty,  received  the  tidings  of  the  death  of  Beatrice. 
The  thought  of  her  had  sustained  him  in  life  ;  she  Avas 
his  pole-star  and  hope  ;  but  though  the  blow  was  a 
terrible  one,  he  bore  it  in  silence,  only  giving  expres- 
sion to  it  six  months  afterwards  in  the  canzone, 
^'  Anima  mia  che  non  ten'  vai  f "  As  his  heart  did 
not,  much  to  his  surprise,  cease  to  beat,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  theology,  mak- 
ing himself  familiar  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors, 
and  for  the  next  two  years  we  know  that  he  was  en- 
grossed in  literary  labors  to  the  exclusion  of  politics. 
In  1292  he  married  Gemma  dei  Donati,  to  whom — 
though  strangely  enough  her  name  is  never  once 
mentioned  in  his  poems — he  became  very  much  at- 
tached. In  the  year  of  his  marriage  he  renewed  his 
connection  with  public  afiairs,  was  elected  to  the  Gov- 
ernment Council  as  Prior  in  1300,  sent  in  the  follow- 
ing year  on  an  embassy  to  Boniface  VIII.,  and  be- 
coming involved  in  one  of  those  revolutions  which 
favored  now  Guelph  and  now  GhibelHne,  incurred,  in 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOKEXTIXES.  145 

the  year  1302,  the  penahy  of  exile.  Now  began  his 
nineteen  years  of  wandering  through  Italy,  staying 
first  with  Bartolommeo  della  Scala  at  Verona,  then  at 
Padua,  and  then  at  Castelnuovo,  where  he  acted  as 
mediator  between  Malespina  and  the  Bishop  of  Luni. 
It  was  then  that  he  tasted  the  bitter  bread  of  exile, 
as  he  says  ;  but  he  did  not  suffer  in  silence,  and  it  was 
at  this  period  that  he  wrote  the  '^  Convito  "  and  the 
discourses  knoAA^n  as  the  "  Volgare  Eloquio."  Broken- 
hearted, and  yearning  with  love  for  Florence,  his  un- 
grateful country,  he  cannot  reconcile  himself  to  the 
thought  of  living  away  from  her,  and  with  a  ming- 
ling of  hope  and  despair  he  Aveeps  and  almost  im- 
plores that  he  may  be  allowed  to  return. 

It  seemed  at  one  time  as  if  his  prayer  Avould  be 
heard,  and  he  hoped  to  hasten  its  fuliilment  by  dedi- 
cating one  of  his  Avorks  to  the  Emperor  Henry  VII. 

In  January,  1311,  Robert,  King  of  Naples,  Avas 
proclaimed  King  of  Italy,  but  the  Guelph  cities 
refused  to  recognize  him,  and  Tuscany  and  the 
Ivomagna  joined  in  a  league  against  him.  The  Florcn- 
tln(;s  allied  themselves  Avith  Lodi,  Cremona,  Brescia, 
]\Iilan,  Pavia,  and  Piacenza,  and  it  took  the  King  six 
months  to  establish  his  jiower.  He  captured  Piacenza, 
Cremona,  Brescia,  and  Pavia,  handing  them  over  to 
governors,  avIio  shoAved  them  no  mercy,  and  thou 
proceeded  to  subjugate  Tuscany.  It  Avas  at  this 
critical  period  that  Florence  opened  her  gates  to 
most  of  the   exiles,  but    the   exchislijn  of  the  leaders 

10 


146  FLOKEXCE. 

dashed  all  Dante's  hopes  to  the  ground.  He  was 
then  at  the  Court  of  the  Polentas  at  Ravenna^  Avith 
Guide  Novello,  as  we  know  by  the  date  of  a  canzone 
on  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Henry  VII.^  dedicated 
to  Guido. 

In  1314  he  was  at  Lucca,  as  the  guest  of  Uguccione 
della  Faggiuola,  and  it  was  there  that  he  forgot  his 
ideal  passion  in  the  arms  of  a  lady  named  Gentucca. 

It  was  an  ancient  custom  that  on  the  festival  of  St. 
John  certain  criminals  should  receive  their  pardon, 
offering  themselves  to  the  saint,  candle  in  hand,  and 
paying  a  fine.  A  strenuous  attempt  was  made  to 
induce  Dante  to  end  his  exile  in  this  way,  but  to  the 
foolish  priest  who  conducted  the  negotiation  he  made 
the  indignant  reply  : 

'^  Is  this  hoAV  I  am  to  be  recalled  to  my  comitry 
after  three  lustres  of  exile  !  Is  this  to  be  the  recom- 
pense of  my  innocence  ?  Is  this  the  reward  of  my 
continued  labor  and  study  ?  Far  from  a  man  familiar 
Avith  philosophy  be  such  base  cowardice!  This  is  not 
how  an  exile  should  come  back.  Another  way  might 
surely  be  found  which  Avould  not  derogate  from  my 
fame.  But  if  by  this  way  only  can  I  enter  Florence, 
never  again  shall  I  see  it.  And  what  then  !  Shall 
I  not  still  see  the  sun  and  the  stars,  and  ponder  the 
sweet  truth,  without  first  giving  myself  in  ignominy 
to  the  Florentine  people  I  Xo  ;  I  would  not  do  it  if 
I  were  starving." 

When  he  made  this  answer  he  was  at  the  Court  of 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOKEXTIXES.  147 

Uguccione,  driven  from  which  he  found  an  asyhim 
with  Can  Grande  della  Scala  at  Verona.  This  was 
tlie  most  celebrated  Court  in  all  Italy,  and  it  was  the 
refuge  of  artists  and  poets  from  all  parts,  for  whom 
Can  Grande  had  built  a  spacious  convent,  with  shady 
gardens  and  cool  cloisters.  Over  the  door  of  each  room 
Can  Grande  had  painted  some  symbol  characteristic 
of  the  inmate — military  trophies  for  the  condottieri 
and  captains  ;  a  palm-branch,  symbolic  of  hope,  for 
the  exiles  ;  an  olive-branch  for  the  monks  ;  and  a 
^Mercury  and  Pallas  for  the  artists.  Dante  was  glad 
to  take  his  place  among  them,  and,  with  Gherardo  di 
Castello,  became  one  of  the  most  honored  guests  of 
Can  Grande,  but  the  latter's  unprincely  mode  of  jest- 
ing causing  an  estrangement,  the  poet  went  to  Ra- 
venna and  settled  at  the  Court  of  Guido  Novello, 
close  to  the  Franciscan  convent  now  called  Forte 
Braccio,  in  a  house  belonging  to  the  Signore  da 
Polenta.  He  had  with  him  his  sons  Giacomo  and 
Pietro,  and  his  daughter  Beatrice.  Guido  Kovello 
was  a  friend  and  comforter  to  him  during  this  bitter 
period  of  exile,  when  he  knew  that  the  last  chance 
of  revisiting  his  country  had  gone.  Everv  dav  he 
repaired  to  the  convent  of  St.  Francis,  and  it  is 
almost  certain  that  towards  the  close  of  his  life  he 
enrolled  himself  among  the  brethren  of  that  order. 
In  1321  he  died,  full  of  honors,  at  Pavenna,  and  the 
lord  of  Polenta  pronounced  his  funeral  oration  and 
decked  his  tomb  with  a  wreath  of  laurel.      The  mon- 


148  FLORENCE. 

iiment  at  Santa  Croce  is,  as  I  have  said,  merely 
ercted  to  his  memory,  his  bones  lying  at  Ravenna,  in 
a  tomb  which  was  built  in  1483,  by  order  of  Bembo, 
the  father  of  the  cardinal  of  that  name,  the  architect 
being  Pietro  Lombardi,  one  of  the  greatest  of  Vene- 
tian artists.  The  small  facade  is  of  a  later  date, 
having  only  been  built  in  1780,  by  the  architect 
Morigia  of  Ravenna,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Cardinal-Legate  Valenti  Gonzaga.  To  this  cursory 
biography  of  a  man  whose  genius  seems  almost 
superhuman,  and  whose  name  is  linked  with  that 
of  Homer  in  the  memory  of  man,  may  be  added 
a  few  lines  on  his  works.  I  am  fain  to  confess  that 
after  one-and-twenty  journeys  in  different  parts  of 
Italy  I  am  still  not  familiar  enough  with  the  language 
to  be  a  good  judge  of  the  sublime  expressions  and 
the  depths  of  beauty  which  characterize  the  "  Divina 
Commedia."  Yet  even  through  the  imperfect  inter- 
pretations of  the  best  translators  one  can  grasp  the 
lofty  conceptions  and  the  alternations  of  fierce  passion 
and  tenderness  which  run  through  its  stanzas. 

Dante  discloses  himself  to  us  in  three  different 
aspects.  At  first  he  sings  of  the  morning  of  life; 
and,  stricken  with  gentle  melancholy  at  the  sight  of 
Beatrice,  he  utters  his  amorous  lay  in  sonnets  and 
cantos.  At  her  death  his  spirit  soars  much  higher, 
and  then  it  was  that  he  wrote  his  great  book  entitled 
'^  Delia  Monarchia,"  a  learned  treatise  on  constitu- 
tions, in  which,  with  an  admixture  of  social  and  theo- 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  149 

logical  science,  lie  discoursed  on  tlie  origin  of  power 
and  of  society.  The  poet  of  the  ^'  Rime  "  and  the 
^'  Vita  Nuova,"  which  are  the  most  graceful,  youthful 
emanations  from  the  tenderest  soul  and  the  greatest 
genius  of  modern  times,  disappeared  in  the  austere 
thinker  trying  to  define  the  limit  between  the  power 
of  the  Emperor  and  that  of  the  Pope. 

Until  Dante's  time  the  Italian,  or  vulgar  tongue,  as 
it  was  called,  was  only  used  by  the  Tuscans  for  busi- 
ness communications,  and  by  common  people ;  but 
the  poet,  by  his  use  of  the  popular  idiom,  proved  that 
the  loftiest  ideas  and  the  noblest  thoughts  could  find 
expression  in  it  as  well  as  in  Latin.  This  was  the 
language  in  whicli  he  wrote  the  ^^Convito'^  as  well 
as  the  '^  Yolgari  Eloquio."  Sent  as  ambassador  to 
Rome,  the  Papal  Court  left  an  indelible  impression 
upon  his  mind,  and  it  was  at  Rome  that  he  wrote  the 
first  stanzas  of  the  "  Divina  Commedia,''  the  recollec- 
tions of  his  early  youth  brinjiinc;  back  the  life-blood 
to  his  heart,  and  evoking  the  radiant  image  of  his 
Beatrice. 

While  not  attempting  to  bring  into  relief  the  infinite 
depth  and  tenderness  of  this  great  work,  I  Avould 
fain  point  out  the  methodical  manner  in  which  it  is 
written.  Thus,  all  the  characters  are  taken  from 
real  life,  though  Dante  intends  them  to  be  allegorical, 
and  the  events  in  Avhich  they  take  part  express  the 
ideas  by  whicli  they  are  actuated.  The  work  is 
divided  into  three  parts — Hell,  Purgatory,  Paradise — 


150  FLORENCE. 

each  containing  a  mystical  teaching,  the  purport  of 
which  is  explained  by  the  poet  himself  in  the  letter 
which  he  wrote  to  Can  Grande  della  Scala^  dedicating 
the  work  to  him  out  of  gratitude  for  his  hospitality. 

Upwards  of  three  thousand  commentators,  begin- 
ning with  Boccaccio,  Jacopo  della  Lena,  and  Grande- 
nigo,  have  endeavored,  with  more  or  less  success,  to 
expound  the  meaning  of  the  poem ;  but  the  most 
trustworthy  exposition  is  that  of  his  son  Jacopo,  Avho 
may  be  supposed  to  have  known  more  about  his 
father's  views  than  any  one  else.  The  best  likeness 
of  him  whom  Guido  da  Polenta  styles  the  "  altissimo 
poeta  "  is  probably  that  in  the  dim  frescoes  of  the 

Bargello. 

GIOVANNI  VILLANI. 

(1270-1348.) 

The  history  of  Florence  may  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced with  two  Avriters,  Dino  Compagni  and  Gio- 
vanni Villani,  both  born  in  the  second  half  of  the 
thirteenth  century. 

Yillani  was  a  merchant  by  profession,  and,  like 
Dante  and  so  many  others,  he  went  to  Rome  in  the 
year  1300,  at  the  time  of  the  indulgence  Avhich  had 
been  decreed  by  Boniface  VIII.  He  was  so  im- 
pressed by  what  he  saw  that  he  determined  to  Avrite 
a  book  about  his  native  city,  and  in  the  preface  he 
says  that  ^^  the  city  of  Florence,  the  daughter  and 
handmaid  of  Rome,  being  destined  for  great  fame,  it 
is  meet  to  set  forth  all  that  relates  to  her  origin,  and 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOREXTIXES.  151 

thus,  by  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  tliis  year  1300, 
I,  safely  returned  from  Rome,  did  begin  to  compile 
this  book  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  of  the  blessed  John, 
my  patron  (saint). ^' 

Viilani  was  the  director  of  the  mint  (La  Zecca)  at 
Florence,  and  he  had  three  times  been  a  member  of 
the  Signoria,  and  five  times  ambassador  to  different 
states.  He  had  occupied  all  kinds  of  posts,  having 
had  the  superintendence  of  the  erection  of  the  ram- 
j)arts  of  Florence,  and  having  been  selected  to  nego- 
tiate peace  between  Florence  and  Pisa,  and  after- 
wards between  Lucca  and  his  native  city ;  while, 
Avhen  fighting  against  the  famous  Castruccio,  he  Avas 
made  prisoner  and  detained  as  a  hostage  by  Martino 
della  Scala.  He  was  a  partisan  of  the  Guelphs  and 
a  devoted  son  of  the  Church,  though  at  the  same  time 
an  advocate  for  communal  rights;  but  he  was  less  suc- 
cessful as  a  banker-merchant,  his  house,  like  those  of 
the  Acciaiuoli,  the  Bonaccorsi,  the  Cocchi,  and  the 
Corsini,  having  been  involved  in  the  disasters  caused 
by  the  failures  of  the  Peruzzi  and  the  Bardi.  He 
was  completely  ruined,  and,  in  accordance  with  the 
corporation  laws  then  in  force,  underwent  a  long  term 
of  imprisonment  at  Florence. 

His  chronicles  throw  no  little  light  upon  the  eco- 
nomic side  of  Florence  during  the  fourteenth  centurv, 
and  he  may  be  described  as  the  first  of  the  political 
economists,  one  passage  in  his  works  telling  us  of  his 
wish  ^*  to  let  posterity  have  some  conception  of  the 


152  FLOKENCE. 

wealth  of  tlie  community,  and  of  the  causes  which 
led  up  to  it,  so  that  in  future  men  of  knowledge  may 
be  able  to  increase  the  prosperity  of  Florence."  He 
died  of  the  plague  in  1348,  and  his  brother  Matteo, 
an  economist  like  himself,  went  on  with  his  history.* 

PASSAVANTI. 

(1297-1357.) 

"  Specchio  della  Vera  Penitenza  "  (^'  Mirror  of  the 
True  Penitence") — such  is  the  singular  title  of  Jacopo 
Passavanti's  Avork,  which  became,  from  a  philological 
point  of  view,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  exemplars 
of  the  Italian  language.  It  has  nothing  to  recom- 
mend it  in  the  way  of  imagination,  for  it  is  little  more 
than  a  compilation  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
but  it  was  no  small  achievement,  in  the  hrst  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  to  express  in  the  scarcely 
formed  vulgar  tongue  the  various  shades  of  thought 
in  a  style  at  once  pure,  elegant,  and  graceful.  These 
are  the  saving  qualities  of  Passavanti's  work. 

He  was  of  a  noble  Florentine  family,  and  at  the 
age  of  twenty  joined  the  Dominican  order  at  Santa 
Maria  Novella,  and  soon  gained  a  celebrity  for  learn- 
ing and  virtue.  So  high  were  the  hopes  entertained 
of  him  that  the  fathers  sent  him,  in  accordance  with 


*  Matteo  also  died  of  the  plague  in  the  year  1363,  and  the  his- 
tory was  continued  by  his  son  Filippo,  the  precise  date  of  whose 
death  is  not  known. 


The  Great  Cloister,  Church  of  S.  Maria  Novella, 

Fra  Gicyvanni  da  Carpi. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTIXES.  153 

tlic  custom  of  the  day,  to  complete  liis  stiulles  at  the 
University  of  Paris  ;  Dante,  Boccaccio,  and  Petrarcli 
hcinf^  among  the  foreign  celebrities  ^vho  sr)journed 
there.  Passavanti,  on  his  return  from  Paris,  taught 
tlieology  at  Pisa,  Siena,  and  Pome,  and  after  attain- 
ing to  the  highest  dignities  in  his  order,  and  becom- 
ing in  succession  Vicar-General  of  Florence  and 
Bishop  of  Monte  Cassino,  he  died  on  the  15th  of 
June,  1357. 

He  -was  best  knoAvn  to  the  Florentines  as  Prior  of 
Santa  Maria  Kovella,  and  he  it  was  who  commissioned 
]\Icmmi  and  Gaddi  to  paint  the  famous  frescoes  in  the 
church  of  that  monastery  where  his  bones  are  laid. 
An  interesting  quotation,  as  showing  the  place  which 
Passavanti's  ^'  Specchio  "  occupied  in  the  literary  his- 
tory of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  extracted  from  the 
writings  of  the  critics  who  were  called  in  1573  '41ie 
deputies  for  the  revision  of  Boccaccio's  ^Decameron.''' 
These  remarks  are  as  follow  :  ^'  There  was  a  certain 
Jacopo,  a  brother  of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  about  ten 
years  Boccaccio's  junior,  who,  in  1351,  that  is,  about 
the  same  time  as  the  '  Decameron,'  published  a  trea- 
tise on  'Penitence'  in  the  Latin  tongue,  which  treatise 
he  translated  himself,  and  partly  recomposed,  into  the 
vulgar  tongue.  His  manner  is  very  similar  to  that 
of  Boccaccio  ;  and  though  he  does  not  seem  to  nuike 
any  attempt  to  be  playful  or  amusing,  the  style  is  not 
devoid  of  delicacy.  The  language,  too,  is,  for  the 
time,   pure,  appropriate,  sedate,  and  ornate,  without 


154  FLOKEXCE. 

being   pretentious,  and   the  work   is   unquestionably 
calculated  to  charm  those  who  read  it." 

Passavanti,  like  so  many  other  authors,  is  no  longer 
read ;  but  it  is  astonishing  to  find  how  many  of  his 
ideas  have  been  appropriated  by  the  most  eminent 
writers,  and  his  ^'  Specchio  "  is  more  amusing,  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  than  the  title  would  lead 
one  to  infer.  Most  of  the  anecdotes  with  which  it 
abounds  refer  to  events  in  Paris,  and  there  is  much 
good-humor  about  the  worthy  monk,  who  urges  upon 
his  readers  an  introspective  examination  of  their  con- 
sciences. 

PETEAKCPI. 
(1304-1374.) 

Yaucluse,  to  use  Petrarch's  own  expression,  is  the 
"  Transalpine  Parnassus  "  of  the  poet ;  and  the  recol- 
lection of  him  is  still  as  vivid  in  the  ancient  ^^  county" 
of  Avignon  as  in  his  native  Tuscany.  He  was  born 
at  Arezzo,  which,  small  as  it  is,  has  given  birth  to  so 
many  men  of  genius,  on  the  20tli  of  July,  1304,  and 
he  came  into  the  world  at  a  time  Avhen  his  country 
was  torn  by  faction,  and  when  several  of  her  most 
illustrious  children  were  in  exile.  His  father,  who 
held  the  appointment  of  Notary  in  the  Florentine 
Rolls  Court,  was  a  friend  of  Dante,  and,  proscribed 
like  the  latter,  took  refuge  at  Pisa,  where  he  sent  his 
son  to  study  at  the  University.  The  death  of  Henry 
VII.,  which  put  an  end  to  the  last  hopes  of  the  exiles 
and  inspired  Dante  with  so  splendid  a  canzone^  led  to 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOREXTIXES.  155 

the  final  exile  of  Petrarch's  father,  who  took  up  his 
residence  at  Avignon  with  the  Papal  Court  of  Clem- 
ent V. 

While  the  University  of  ]\[ontpcllIer  was  already 
celebrated,  the  south  could  boast  at  that  time  of  those 
Courts  of  Love  at  which  the  Provenyal  poets  met  in 
friendly  rivalry.  Petrarch's  father  looked  upon  the 
study  of  law  as  the  surest  road  to  fortune  for  his  son, 
and  it  is  said  that  finding  him  on  one  occasion  ab- 
sorbed in  Cicero,  he  took  the  book  and  cast  it  into  the 
fire.  Those  who  are  predestined  to  be  fiimous  in  let- 
ters are  not,  however,  to  be  thus  deterred,  and  Pe- 
trarch drank  so  deeply  of  the  ancient  writers  that  in 
his  ''  Triumph  of  Fame  "  he  calls  Virgil,  Cicero,  and 
Seneca  ''  the  eyes  of  our  language  "  (questi  son  gli 
ocelli  do  la  lingua  nostra). 

A  brief  sketch  of  his  life  will  not  come  amiss  be- 
fore explaining  by  what  strands  he  is  connected  with 
the  genius  of  Florence,  and  fixing  his  place  in  the 
history  of  her  literature :  below  Dante  and  above 
Boccaccio.  His  father,  adhering  to  his  resolve  to 
make  a  lawyer  of  him,  sent  him  from  Montpellier, 
where  he  had  spent  four  years,  to  the  University  of 
Bologna  ;  here  he  studied  first  under  Giacomo  Andrea, 
and  then  under  Cino  da  Pistoia.  He  was  left  an 
orplian  at  twenty,  and  his  fortune  having  been 
squandered  by  his  executors,  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
turn to  Avignon,  where  he  then  gave  himself  up  to 
his  favorite  studies. 


156  FLOKENCE. 

He  was  twenty-three  when  he  made  the  acquamt- 
ance  of  Colonna,  Bishop  of  Lombez,  whose  affection 
for  him  exercised  a  very  great  influence  upon  the 
whole  of  his  future  career ;  and  it  is  at  this  period, 
too,  that  began  to  dawn  the  passion  Avhich  directed 
the  course  of  his  whole  life,  and  inspired  him  with 
the  sonnets  by  which  he  is  known  to  us.  Petrarch 
remains  for  posterity  ^'  the  lover  of  Laura,"  and  the 
fountain  of  Vaucluse  has  become  the  shrine  of  this 
affection,  not  less  touching  and  ill-starred  than  that 
inspired  by  Beatrice,  but  more  real  and  more  vivid. 
It  was  under  the  influence  of  this  stormy  passion  that 
Petrarch  made  his  way  through  the  south  of  France  to 
Paris,  Flanders,  the  Netherlands,  and  Luxembourg, 
exhaling  in  all  directions  his  amorous  burden,  like  a 
bird  stricken  by  a  dart ;  and  scattering  his  verses  by 
the  wayside. 

Petrarch,  however,  was  a  citizen  of  the  world, 
and  he  was  of  too  practical  a  turn  of  mind  to  isolate 
himself  in  the  ethereal  Platonism  which  animates 
some  of  his  writings.  Pope  John  XXII.  was  intent 
Tipon  restoring  Rome  to  the  Holy  Sec,  and  Petrarch, 
inflamed  by  the  idea  of  a  fresh  crusade,  wrote  the 
ode  to  the  Bishop  of  Lombez  which  begins  with  the 
splendid  invocation,  "■  O  aspettata  in  ciel,"  and  in 
1335  he  wrote  some  magnificent  Latin  verses  on  the 
same  subject  to  Pope  Benedict  XII. 

But  the  image  of  Laura  still  haunted  him,  and  he 
could  not  bring  himself  to  settle  anywhere.      Colonna, 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  157 

having  Lecomc  a  cardinal,  induced  liim  to  come  to 
Itonie,  but  lie  soon  returned  to  Avignon,  and  went  to 
reside  in  solitude  at  Vaucluse,  leading  a  life  of  ascet- 
icism, and  devoting  lilmsiJf  wholly  to  the  ideal  figure 
of  her  upon  whom  all  his  thoughts  were  fixed.  It 
was  there  that  he  wrote  tliose  sonnets  and  odes,  whicli 
soon  made  him  famous  throughout  Italy,  and  worthy 
to  be  compared  with  Dante  himself. 

In  1340  his  name  had  become  so  celebrated  that 
the  lioman  Senate  invited  him  to  return  to  that  city 
and  receive  the  honors  of  the  Capitol,  while  the 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris,  Avhich  at  that 
time  enjoyed  a  world-wide  celebrity,  off*ered  him  sim- 
ilar honors  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine. 

Petrarch  repaired  to  Italy,  first  visiting  Xaples, 
where  Eobert  of  Anjou,  a  friend  of  literature,  was 
surrounded  by  a  Court  composed  of  poets  and  men 
of  learning.  It  was  at  Naples  that  he  became  inti- 
mate with  Boccaccio,  to  whom  he  addressed  such 
touching  letters  instinct  with  friendliness.  Upon  the 
8th  of  April,  1341,  he  went  up  to  the  Capitol,  twelve 
young  Poman  princes  preceding  him  and  reciting 
some  of  his  finest  compositions.  Having  reached  the 
altar,  he  received  the  laurel  wreath  and  the  garlands 
of  flowers  woven  by  patrician  hands.  When  he  had 
received  them,  he  laid  them  Avith  reverence  upon  the 
altar,  as  much  as  to  intimate  that  he  owed  his  success 
to  Divine  favor,  and  after  the  ceremony  was  over  he 
returned  to  Avignon,  without  casting  one  look  behind. 


158  FLORENCE. 

The  year  following,  as  the  Romans  had  commis- 
sioned him  to  make  kno^yn  their  wishes  to  the  Holy 
Father,  Clement  VI.  appointed  him  Prior  of  Miglia- 
rino,  in  the  diocese  of  Pisa,  and  he  intrusted  him  with 
a  mission 'at  once  confidential  and  perilous,  to  Naples, 
where  the  Holy  Father  claimed  the  regency.  But 
the  Princess  Joan,  a  granddaughter  of  King  Robert, 
who  has  left  behind  her  a  yery  bad  reputation,  would 
not  listen  to  his  representations,  and  he  returned  to 
Avignon,  after  a  brief  stay  at  Parma.  He  was,  in 
his  retreat,  still  accessible  to  the  influence  of  generous 
ideas,  and  when  Rienzi  endeavored  to  restore  the  re- 
public at  Rome,  Petrarch  sent  him  his  congratula- 
tions, and  did  not  allow  even  the  assassination  of  Cardi- 
nal Colonna  to  estrange  him.  But  the  phantom  of  a 
restored  republic  faded  away  with  the  death  of  Ri- 
enzi •  and  it  was  just  about  the  same  time  that  Laura 
was  stricken  down  by  the  plague  of  1348,  which 
Boccaccio  has  depicted  in  such  sinister  colors. 

The  death  of  Laura,  which  inspired  his  most  ten- 
der sonnets  and  filled  him  Avith  such  lasting  sorrow, 
could  not  occupy  his  whole  heart,  and  his  duties  as  a 
man  and  a  citizen  were  not  forgotten.  After  a  short 
visit  to  Louis  Gonzaga  at  Mantua,  in  the  country  of 
his  beloved  Virgil,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Charles  IV., 
entreating  him  to  restore  peace  to  Florence  :  and  in 
1350  he  Avas  enabled  to  return  there,  spending  some 
time  with  Boccaccio,  and  visiting  his  native  Arezzo, 
where  he  had  become  a  stranger.      The  plague  drove 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  159 

him  from  Florence,  and  in  company  with  Boccaccio 
he  visited  Venice.  As  one  by  one  his  friends  died 
and  left  hini  more  solitary,  his  life  became  more 
austere  and  laborious.  At  Ferrara,  Avhere  he  went 
to  see  the  Prince,  he  fell  ill,  and  on  getting  better  he 
took  up  his  residence  at  j\[ilan,  Avhere  he  passed  the 
next  nine  years  as  the  guest  of  the  Visconti.  In 
1362  he  settled  at  Padua,  and  in  1369  retired  to  the 
little  village  of  Arqua,  where  on  the  18th  of  July, 
1374,  he  was  found  seated  in  his  library  with  his 
forehead  resting  on  a  book.  Death  had  overtaken 
him  in  this  attitude  of  study  so  typical  of  his  whole 
life.  He  was  buried  with  great  pomp,  Francesco  de 
Carrara  acting  as  chief  mourner,  while  all  the  nobility 
followed  his  coffin.  He  is  buried  in  front  of  the  door 
of  the  church  at  Arqua,  and  by  his  will  he  bequeathed 
all  his  valuable  MS8.  to  the  Repubhc  of  Venice,  and 
left  a  small  sum  to  his  friend  Boccaccio.  Petrarch 
derived  much  of  his  inspiration  from  Dante,  and  there 
is  a  very  great  resemblance  between  the  "  Pime  "  of 
the  former  and  the  miscellaneous  pieces  from  the  hit- 
ter's ^^Convito."  In  Petrarch's  case  his  finest  inspira- 
tions, those  which  go  straight  to  the  heart  and  keep 
the  writer's  name  alive  in  future  ages,  are  dictated  by 
his  passion  for  Laura,  and  he  derived  from  his  studv 
of  the  ancient  authors  a  clearness  of  stvle  and  a 
limpidity  of  thought  Avhich  were  in  favorable  con- 
trast with  the  mysticism  and  obscure  allegories  of 
Dante.     He   assimilated   the  language,    and  was,  in 


160  FLOEE^XE. 

spite  of  a  few  solecisms,  a  faultless  Latin  writer,  hav- 
ing the  fluency  of  Cicero,  and  writing  prose  like  a 
poet — with  a  wealth,  that  is  to  say,  of  imagery.  He 
Avas  so  well  endowed,  too,  with  the  art  of  imitation 
that  his  writings  may  easily  be  mistaken  for  those  of 
the  poets  at  the  end  of  the  Empire,  and  in  some  in- 
stances he  goes  so  far  as  to  copy  the  very  ground- 
work and  method  of  certain  Roman  writers.  His 
'"''  Consolations  ^'  take  one  back  entirely  to  antiquity, 
and  in  bidding  a  friend  bear  up  under  adversity  he 
calls  to  his  aid  all  the  examples  furnished  by  Roman 
history.  He  was  richly  endowed,  no  doubt,  in  imag- 
ination, but  having  been  intimately  mixed  up  in  the 
practical  affairs  of  his  day,  he  has  derived  all  his  illus- 
trations from  contemporary  life,  or  from  facts  testified 
to  in  the  works  of  ancient  authors. 

Petrarch,  in  his  wanderings,  saAv  France  during 
the  fourteenth  century  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
He  resided  at  Avignon,  Montpellier,  Bologna,  Paris, 
Cologne,  Xaples,  Genoa,  Rome,  Parma,  Florence, 
Venice,  Padua,  Milan,  and  Prague.  He  was  the 
friend  of  kings,  the  guest  and  correspondent  of  popes, 
and  the  pensioner  of  great  nobles.  He  took  part  in 
various  political  combinations,  and  his  reveries  ex- 
tended over  many  fields.  He  was  more  a  man  of 
letters  than  a  devotee  ;  and  though  a  canon,  a  bishop, 
and  a  prior,  he  held  such  broad  views  on  religion 
that  he  was  the  friend  of  Boccaccio,  whom  he  gently 
chided,  however,  for  the  tone  of  his  writings,  exhort- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  161 

iiig  liim  to  be  more  guarded  in  his  expressions. 
When  he  Avrote  on  religious  subjects  he,  like  Marcilio 
Ficino  at  a  later  date,  referred  for  his  facts  to  the 
philosophers  and  rhetoricians,  and  quoted  Cicero  and 
Seneca  in  preference  to  Holy  Writ.  He  was  impelled 
by  a  longing  for  solitude  to  reside  at  Vaucluse  and 
Arqua  ;  but  withal  he  was  a  man,  and  was  moved  by 
human  ambition,  and  though  he  bore  his  triumplis 
wdth  modesty,  he  was  none  the  less  eager  in  his  pur- 
suit of  them.  He  Avas,  in  fact,  more  of  a  sage  than 
a  saint.  He  was  endowed  with  a  certain  breadth  of 
mind  which  prevented  him  from  being  held  in  bond- 
age by  the  dreamy  views  of  his  age,  and  which  kept 
him  free  from  the  errors  of  astrology  and  the  preju- 
dices of  the  time.  He  had  no  mission  as  a  poHtical 
partisan  like  Dante,  having  broader  views  and  being 
less  of  a  sectarian  than  the  latter,  and  this  enabled 
him  to  look  down  upon  the  human  mclce  from  the 
observatorv  to  which  he  had  ascended,  and  to  Avatcli 
the  varying  phases  of  the  combat  with  disinterested 
eyes.  At  Avhat  he  deemed  the  appropriate  hour  he 
wrote  letters  in  behalf  of  justice  to  pontiffs  and  to 
emperors,  speaking  freely  and  impartially  to  the 
rulers,  spiritual  and  temporal. 

Eager  for  knowledge  and  study,  he  grieved  that 
he  could  not  read  Homer  in  the  Greek  text,  writing 
to  Sygeros,  ^'  Your  Homer  lies  dumb  by  my  side  ;  I 
am  deaf  to  his  voice,  but  still  the  sight  of  him  rejoices 
me,  and  I  often  embrace  him." 

11 


162  FLOKENCE. 

It  has  been  asked  whether  the  Laura  who  held  so 
large  a  place  in  the  life  of  the  poet  was  a  fiction  or  a 
living  reality.  She  has  been  identified  by  some  with 
Laura  de  Xoves^  daughter  of  Audibert  de  Noves,  and 
she  was  already  married  when  Petrarch  saw  her  for 
the  first  time  in  the  church  of  St.  Claire  at  Avignon. 
He  fell  in  love  with  her  at  first  sight^  and  for  twenty 
years  preserved  this  passion  in  his  heart  as  a  fruitful 
source  of  inspiration.  He  loved  her  as  one  loves  at 
twenty — with  enthusiasm,  candor,  and  chastity.  He 
was  three-and-twenty  the  day  he  first  met  her,  and 
he  had  already  assumed  the  priestly  garb.  As  time 
went  on  his  passion  became  more  ardent,  but  she 
gave  him  no  encouragement,  and  after  an  absence 
he  returned  to  Avignon  only  to  experience  the  same 
disappointment.  Laura  died  of  the  plague  in  1348, 
and  he  bewailed  her  loss  in  verses  which  are  more 
profound,  passionate,  and  truly  beautiful  than  those 
in  which  he  extols  "  her  serene  eyes,  her  beautiful 
angelic  mouth,  full  of  pearls,  roses,  and  gentle  words." 
Some  of  the  early  ^^  Rime  "  are  rather  mincing,  but 
there  is  the  accent  of  deep  sorrow  in  the  "  Sonnets,'^ 
notably  in  the  splendid  lines  : 

"  Morta  colei  die  mi  facea  parlare 
E  die  si  stava  de'  pensier  mie'  in  dma." 

In  his  despair  he  determined  to  abandon  the  world, 
and  he  wrote  upon  the  fly-leaf  of  his  Virgil  tlie  oath 
to  fly  from  Babylon  and  to  cut  himself  adrift  from 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  163 

all  worldly  ties.  But,  as  M.  Gliebart  remarks  in  his 
"  Origines  de  la  Renaissance/'  "  gifted  writers  like 
Petrarch  do  well  not  to  deprive  the  world  of  tlieir 
eloquence,  their  irony,  their  sagacity,  and  the  reso- 
nant echo  of  their  genius.'' 

ACCIAIUOLI  (NICCOLO). 

(1310-1365.) 

The  name  of  this  family,  though  it  was  not  in- 
digenous to  Tuscany,  is  a  very  common  one  at  Flor- 
ence. One  branch  of  it  settled  in  that  city  during 
the  fourteenth  century,  and  on  the  12th  of  September, 
1310,  Niccolo,  who  was  destined  to  be  the  glory  of 
his  house,  was  born  there. 

His  principal  held  of  action  was  Xaples,  Avhither 
he  had  gone  as  tutor  to  the  young  Prince  Louis  of 
Tarentum,  son  of  Catherine  of  Valois,  the  widow  of 
Philip,  Prince  of  Tarentum. 

Faithful  to  his  employers,  he  shared  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  Court  of  Naples  during  the  time  of  Queen 
Joan  L,  whom  he  accompanied  to  Avignon,  and  wlien 
Ijouis  of  Tarentum  espoused  her,  Acciaiuoli  had  them 
crowned  at  Naples,  and  was  appointed  by  the  Queen 
Great  Seneschal  of  the  kingdom,  this  being  the  high- 
est dignity  to  which  he  could  aspire. 

Driven  from  her  Court  l)y  the  King  of  Ilungarv, 
wandering  from  place  to  place,  and  ever  in  danger 
of  some  fresh  disaster,  the  Queen  was  saved  by 
Niccolo,  who   presented  himself  to  the   Florentines, 


164  FLOREXCE. 

and  implored  their  help  for  the  granddaughter  of 
King  Robert  of  Naples,  who  had  been  their  faithful 
ally. 

Endowed  with  great  energy  and  matehless  dex- 
terity, he  raised  an  army  and  coped  with  the  condot- 
tieri,  who  thought  they  had  an  easy  prey.  But  the 
resources  of  the  Court  were  exhausted,  and  the  army, 
being  kept  waiting  for  its  pay,  went  over  to  the 
enemy.  Acciaiuoli  died  in  1365,  and  his  biography 
was  written  by  Matteo  Palmieri,  the  Apostolic  Secre- 
tary. 

BOCCACCIO. 
(1313-1375.) 

Boccaccio  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  classical 
prose  writer  of  Italy,  and  to  him  belongs  also  the  dis- 
tinction of  fully  revealing  to  the  Tuscan  people  by 
his  commentaries  the  genius  of  Dante. 

I  do  not  knoAV  upon  what  ground  Dandolo,  the 
author  of  the  ^^  ^-Esthetic  Guide  to  Florence,"  makes 
his  statement  as  to  Paris  having  been  the  birthplace 
of  Boccaccio,  for  the  generally  accepted  belief  is  that 
he  was  born,  as  asserted  in  the  Osservatore  Fiorentino^ 
at  Certaldo  in  1313.*  His  father  was  a  merchant, 
and  it  was  against  his  wishes  that  his  son  embarked 
upon  a  hterary  career.  Very  well  read  in  the  ancient 
authors,  he  gave  his  preference  to  the  vulgar  tongue, 
and  the  first  Italian  author  Avhom  he  read,  and  whose 

*  In  "II  Filocopo,''  Boccaccio  writing  of  himself  in  the  char- 
acter of  Caleone,  mentions  Paris  as  his  birthplace. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOREXTIXES.  165 

works  he  soon  got  to  know  by  heart,  was  Dante. 
From  him  he  derived  his  highest  and  best  inspira- 
tions, inchiding  the  substance  of  the  eloquent  speech 
which  he  delivered  under  the  Duomo  on  the  day  that 
he  vented  his  malediction  on  Florence  for  having 
closed  her  gates  upon  the  most  illustrious  of  her  sons. 
The  speech  is  still  extant,  and  well  deserves  the 
reputation  which  it  gained  at  the  time. 

lie  happened  to  be  at  Naples  at  the  time  when 
King  Robert  was  receiving  Petrarch  with  so  much 
pomp.  He  made  the  poet's  acquaintance,  and  learnt 
to  admire  and  respect  him,  retaining  until  the  day 
of  his  death  a  filial  regard  for  him.  Boccaccio,  in 
his  early  days,  was  a  thorough  gallant,  and  having 
fallen  in  love  with  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Xaples, 
he  gave  utterance  to  his  passion  in  one  of  his  great- 
est works,  ^^La  Fiammetta,'^  on  the  title-page  of 
which  he  inscribed  her  name.  He  made  but  a  brief 
stay  at  Florence,  whither  he  was  summoned  by  his 
fitlier  during  the  reign  of  the  mad  Duke  cf  Athens, 
returning  at  once  to  Naples,  Avhere  he  enjoyed  the 
fivor  of  two  queens,  or  of  two  daughters  of  queens, 
whose  literary  tastes  were  very  highly  developed. 
The  death  of  his  father  brought  him  back  to  Tuscany, 
and  he  made  Florence  his  permanent  residence.  It 
was  there  that  he  received  Petrarch  on  his  Avay  to 
the  jubilee  at  Rome  after  a  separation  of  twenty 
years,  and  he  set  himself  to  recover  for  the  exiled 
poet  his  rights  of  citizenship  and  his  paternal  inherit- 


166  FLORENCE. 

ance,  which  had  been  confiscated  when  his  father, 
like  Dante,  was  driven  into  exile.  Boccaccio  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  from  the  Signoria  a  decree  restor- 
ing this  property  to  Petrarch. 

There  are  two  distinct  individualities  in  Boccaccio, 
and  yet  Frenchmen  and  many  other  foreigners  per- 
sist in  estimating  his  character  by  the  first  part  of 
his  life  only,  associating  his  name  with  all  that  is 
sensuous  and  light.  This  may  hold  true  of  him  while 
he  was  at  the  Court  of  Naples,  and  while  he  was  com- 
posing amorous  poetry  in  honor  of  his  royal  patroness; 
but  after  the  year  1360  he  devoted  himself  to  more 
serious  study,  and  followed  in  the  wake  of  Accursi, 
the  great  jurisconsult,  seeking  the  companionship  of 
the  learned  Greek  philosophers  from  Byzantium  who 
flocked  to  Florence,  and  even  assuming  the  priestly 
garb.  This  conversion  was  mainly  the  work  of  Pe- 
trarch and  of  a  Carthusian  monk,  and  he  might  pos- 
sibly have  renounced  writing  altogether  if  it  had  not 
been  for  a  remarkable  letter  in  which  Petrarch  dis- 
suaded him  from  giving  up  the  composition  of  poetry, 
and  urged  him  to  use  his  pen  to  instil  admiration  for 
the  beautiful,  useful,  and  good. 

It  is  certain,  at  all  events,  that  he  led  a  contem- 
plative life  during  the  last  few  years  of  his  existence, 
devoting  his  whole  thoughts  to  God,  to  the  salvation 
of  his  own  soul,  and  to  his  books.  The  death  of 
Petrarch  in  1374  affected  him  so  deeply  that  he  de- 
clared that  he  slioidd  not  long  survive  him ;  and,  as 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTIXKS.  167 

a  matter  of  fact,  lie  died  the  following  year.  The 
Avill  of  this  once  brilliant  courtier  was  a  model  of 
liiunhleness.  He  bequeathed  to  Bruna,  the  daughter 
of  his  friend  Ciango  do  Montemagno,  "  a  wooden 
bedstead,  a  feather-bed,  a  pair  of  good  sheets,  a  small 
taljle  upon  which  he  was  wont  to  take  his  meals,  two 
table-cloths,  two  towels,  and  his  monk's  robe  lined 
with  purple."  He  bequeathed  two  holy  images  to 
the  church  of  San  Giacomo  at  Certaldo,  where  he 
died,  and  all  his  manuscripts  to  Martino  da  Signa,  on 
condition  that  he  allowed  any  one  to  take  a  copy  of 
them.  This  comprised  the  whole  fortune  of  the 
whilom  favorite  of  the  Court  of  Xaples. 

His  tomb  is  not  at  Santa  Croce,  where  one  would 
expect  to  find  it,  between  those  of  Dante  and  Machia- 
velli,  but  at  Certaldo,  where  he  had  spent  the  last 
two  years  of  his  life.  It  has  suffered  many  vicissi- 
tudes, too,  having  first  been  moved  to  make  room  for 
the  organ,  while  in  1783,  owing  to  a  mistaken  inter- 
pretation of  the  Grand  Duke  Leopold's  decree  as  to 
burials  inside  of  churches,  the  bones  of  the  illustrious 
writer  were  removed  from  the  coffin  and  deposited 
elsewhere.  Filippo  Villani  has  left  a  description  of 
him  which  tallies  very  closely  with  the  bust  at  Cer- 
taldo, and  which,  as  we  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
is  correct.  According  to  this  description,  the  lips 
were  half-parted  Avith  a  smile  ;  he  was  stout,  and  had 
a  fresh  complexion.  The  nose  Avas  rather  flat,  and 
though  he  had  no  pretensions  to  manly  beauty,  there 


168  FLOEENCE. 

was  an  air  of  good-liiimor  upon  his  pleasant  face.  *It 
is  the  likeness,  in  short,  of  the  poet  of  the  ''  De- 
cameron "  rather  than  of  the  philosopher  of  later 
years  which  the  artist  has  left  to  us. 

But  a  better  insight  into  the  character  of  a  man  is 
to  be  gained  from  the  private  correspondence  in  which 
he  gives  free  expression  to  his  thoughts  ;  and  Avhen 
Francis,  the  son-in-law  of  Petrarch,  announced  to 
Boccaccio  the  latter's  death,  he  wrote  him  a  letter  in 
Latin  which  shows  how  accessible  his  heart  Avas  to 
pity  and  veneration,  and  how  deeply  he  was  affected 
by  his  friend's  death. 

^^  My  first  impulse,"  he  says,  "  was  to  come  and 
weep  with  you  over  our  mutual  loss,  and  say  a  last 
farewell  to  our  mutual  father,  but  for  the  ten  years 
that  I  have  been  lecturing  in  public  upon  Dante's 
^  Commedia '  I  have  been  afflicted  with  an  infirmity 
which,  though  not  dangerous,  to  a  great  extent  par- 
alyzes my  movements.  When  I  received  your  letter 
I  wept  all  the  night  long,  not  out  of  sorrow  for  this 
worthy  man  (for  the  virtues  with  which  he  Avas  en- 
dowed are  a  sure  guarantee  that  he  has  entered  into 
eternal  happiness  with  his  God),  but  because  his 
death  leaves  me  like  a  ship  at  sea  without  a  pilot. 
Amid  the  agitation  of  my  soul  I  thought  of  your 
anguish  and  of  that  of  the  worthy  Tullia,  your  wife 
and  my  sister.  As  a  Florentine  I  envy  Arqua,  Avhich, 
hitherto  obscure,  will  now  become  famous  in  the  world's 
history.     The  traveller,  as  he  sails  along  the  Adriatic 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLOKENTINES.  169 

on  Lis  way  from  the  distant  East,  will  look  towards 
the  Eiigancan  hills,  and  will  say  to  his  companions, 
^It  is  at  the  foot  of  those  hills  that  rests  Petrarch!' 
Oh,  unhappy  country,  which  will  not  hold  the  ashes 
of  so  illustrious  a  son !  Thou  hast  not  deserved 
this  good  fortune,  for  during  his  lifetime  thou  didst 
nothing  to  attach  him  to  thee.  Perhaps  thou  wouldst 
have  done  so  had  he  been  a  Avorker  of  treason,  and 
sullied  with  crime,  or  devoured  by  ambition  and 
envy.''  A  constant  study  of  these  favored  epochs 
of  literature  may  possibly  make  one  feel  all  the  more 
distaste  for  the  foolish  politics  of  the  hour,  and  cause 
one  to  undervalue  one's  own  epoch  ;  but  certain  it  is 
that  the  mind  dwells  fondly  upon  the  names  of  such 
men  as  Dante,  Boccaccio,  Michael  Angelo,  and  Dona- 
tello,  who  were  as  lofty  in  character  as  in  genius,  and 
the  nobility  of  whose  disposition  pulsates  through 
their  writings. 

Boccaccio  was  the  first  writer  of  romance,  prop- 
erly so  called ;  the  ^^  story  "  and  the  poem  in  octavo 
in  the  vulgar  tongue  being  his  creation.  To  him  we 
owe  ^^Ameto,"  "B  Filostrato,''  "L'Amorosa  vizione," 
and  ^'  B  Ninfale  fiesolano,"  poetic  compositions  of  his 
youth,  which  have  often  been  copied  since,  and  which 
have  served  as  types  of  a  school.  Of  these  the 
*'  Fiammetta,''  written  in  1344,  is  regarded  as  his 
greatest  work,  while  his  ^'  Life  of  Dante  "  was  the 
first  biography  of  the  poet  of  the  ^'  Divina  Connne- 
dia."     He  also  wrote  ^'  The  Genealogy  of  the  Gods," 


170  FLORE^XE. 

^^Illustrious  Women,"  and  ^'Illustrious  Unfortunates/' 
as  well  as  a  treatise  upon  mountains,  forests,  and 
rivers.  If  we  consider  the  period  at  which  this  was 
Avritten,  we  see  how  much  he  was  ahead  of  his  age  as 
regards  mythology,  geography,  literature,  and  phi- 
lology. He  was  far  advanced  in  years  and  near  his 
end  when  he  began  the  commentaries  on  Dante  and 
the  '^  Divina  Commedia,"  and  was  accorded  the  priv- 
ilege of  occupying  the  pulpit  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Fiore,  the  people  of  Florence  flocking  to  the  church 
in  crowds  to  hear  the  eloquent  revelation  of  the 
beauties  of  a  work  which,  notwithstanding  the  com- 
mentaries of  Dante's  own  son,  still  remained  obscure 
for  the  multitude. 

It  was  upon  one  of  these  memorable  occasions  that 
he  so  fiercely  stigmatized  the  crimes  of  the  preceding 
generations  of  Florentines,  making  the  vaulted  roof 
of  the  Duomo  ring  with  his  indignant  tirade  :  '^  Oh, 
Florence  !  what  madness  impelled  you  to  drive  out 
the  most  glorious  of  your  children,  one  the  like  of 
whom  no  other  city  could  ever  hope  to  possess. 
What  greater  victories,  and  triumphs,  and  supremacy 
can  you  boast  of?  Your  riches  are  uncertain,  your 
beauty  fragile  and  fleeting,  your  elegancies  idle  and 
frivolous  ;  it  is  only  those  people,  who  judge  more  of 
appearance  than  reality,  who  can  regard  them  as  be- 
ing glorious.  Do  you  set  great  store  by  your  mer- 
chants and  your  goldsmiths,  by  the  ancient  lineage 
and  the  celebrity  of  your  great  families  ?     Unnatural 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  171 

mother  that  you  arc,  open  your  eyes  and  behold  your 
misdeeds,  and  may  remorse  and  repentance  lay  hold 
on  you  !  Your  Dante,  your  son,  died  in  exile,  and  it 
was  you  who  sent  him  into  banishment.  His  remains 
rest  in  foreign  ground,  and  you  Avill  never  see  him 
before  the  last  day.  He  treated  you  with  fiHal  re- 
spect, for  he  might  have  deprived  you  of  his  works, 
as  you  did  not  treat  him  with  due  honor.  Yet^  in 
return  for  his  inspired  writings,  you  deprived  him  of 
liis  right  of  citizenship.  He  was  banished  forever, 
and  yet  he  remained  a  Florentine,  preferring  his  na- 
tive place  to  all  the  cities  of  Italy.  Ask  that  his 
bones  may  be  surrendered  to  you ;  pay  this  last  mark 
of  respect  to  his  mighty  shade,  and  even  if  you  do 
not  feel  any  remorse,  take  this  step  in  order  that  the 
burden  of  reproach  may  be  less  heavy  upon  you. 
Ask  that  his  ashes  may  be  restored  to  you ;  and 
though  I  am  certain  that  you  Avill  be  refused,  vou 
Avill  at  least  have  shown  that  you  are  not  altogether  a 
stranger  to  feelings  of  pity.  But  it  is  perhaps  a  vain 
hope  which  I  hold  out  to  you,  for  the  dead  can  neither 
feel  nor  understand.  Dante  Avill  not  emerge  from  his 
last  resting-place  at  Ravenna,  from  that  necropolis  in 
Avhich  so  many  illustrious  dead  are  buried ;  and  Ra- 
venna, which  knows  the  value  set  on  her  hospitalitv, 
knows,  also,  the  value  of  the  treasure  whicli  she  pos- 
sesses. The  whole  miiverse  keeps  watch  over  the 
remains  of  the  greatest  and  most  perfect  genius  ever 
born^  and  you,  Florence,  are   left  ftice  to  face  with 


172  FLOKENCE. 

your  ingratitude,  while  it  is  this  foreign  city  which  in 
future  ages  will  reap  the  glory  Avhich  ought  to  have 
been  yours. '^ 

The  most  popular  of  Boccaccio's  works,  the  mas- 
terpiece which  is  the  heritage  of  every  great  writer, 
and  which  becomes,  so  to  speak,  the  peg  to  which  his 
celebrity  is  affixed,  is  the  ^^  Decameron.''  As  regards 
imagination  and  style,  it  stands  alone.  It  gives  a 
complete  and  lifelike  picture  of  manners  and  customs 
at  Florence  in  the  fourteenth  century.  It  is  an  epit- 
ome of  Florentine  habits,  each  class  of  society  being 
depicted  with  a  master  hand  in  its  pursuits,  its  pas- 
sions, its  good  qualities,  its  defects.  It  is  a  mirror  in 
which  each  class  finds  its  own  image  reflected,  and 
though  the  work  is  of  a  licentious  tendency,  which 
makes  it  unsuitable  for  the  young,  this  is  only  an  ac- 
cessory feature.  The  ^^  Decameron  "  is  a  frame  for 
the  display  of  contemporary  pictures,  and  one  of  the 
tales  from  it,  the  episode  of  Griselda,  was  selected  by 
Petrarch  to  translate  into  Latin. 

COLUCCIO  SALUTATI. 

(1330-1-106.) 

The  h  )nor  of  taking  rank  immediately  after  Dante, 
Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio  devolved  upon  Salutati, 
whose  mission  it  was  to  correct  the  texts  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  authors,  to  form  libraries  and  acad- 
emies, and  to  see  that  the  manuscripts  tallied  exactly 
with  the  originals.     He  had  the  reputation  of  being 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  173 

the  most  elegant  Latin  scliolar  of  his  day,  and  as 
Pope  Urban  V.  was  anxious  to  have  him  as  ApostoHc 
Secretary,  he  was  compelled  to  take  holy  orders. 
Being  a  widower  at  the  time,  he  seemed  likely  to  rise 
to  the  highest  dignities  in  the  Church,  but  the  Pope 
having  removed  the  Holy  See  to  Avignon,  Coluccio, 
not  feeling  any  decided  vocation  for  a  religious  life, 
threw  off  his  priestly  robes  and  remained  in  Italy, 
where  he  soon  contracted  a  second  marriage. 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  was  free,  several 
sovereigns  and  princes  invited  him  to  come  and  re- 
side at  their  Court,  but  though  he  had  acted  as  Chan- 
cellor of  Perugia,  and  had  gone  thence  to  the  Court 
of  Rome,  he  was  unwilling  to  leave  Florence,  Avhere 
he  had  accepted,  in  1375,  the  post  of  Chancellor, 
with  the  arduous  task  of  conciliating  the  interests 
and  appeasing  the  cravings  of  Guelphs  and  Ghibel- 
lines,  and  of  the  many  Florentine  families  which 
were  at  daggers  drawn  with  each  other. 

For  thirty  years  Salutati  discharged  these  duties 
with  unquestioned  authority,  and  he  became  the 
model  secretary  of  the  Republic,  after  whom  Gian- 
ozzo  Manetti,  Leonardo  Bruni,  and  Carlo  Marsup})ini 
shaped  their  conduct.  The  duty  of  corresponding 
with  crowned  heads  devolved  upon  him,  and  he  was 
equal  to  the  task  of  u[)holding  the  interests  of  the 
country,  of  forming  alliances  in  the  hour  of  danger, 
and  of  averting  perils  of  various  kinds. 

He  occupied  a  very  prominent  place  in  Florentine 


174  FLORENCE. 

politics  during  tlie  fourteenth  century,  and  he  pos- 
sessed sufficient  influence  to  take  the  lead  in  very  im- 
portant negotiations,  as  -when  at  the  time  of  the  great 
Papal  schism  he  wrote  to  Innocent  VII.  urging  him  to 
put  an  end  to  a  scandal  which  threatened  to  be  the  ruin 
of  the  Church.  The  celebrated  John  Galeas  Vis- 
conti,  when  ready  to  make  war  with  Florence,  de- 
clared that  he  dreaded  the  arguments  of  Salutati 
more  than  a  great  army.  His  manifestoes  are  abid- 
ing proofs  of  his  political  genius,  just  as  they  are 
masterpieces  of  literature  and  eloquence. 

Politics,  however,  did  not  make  him  forget  his 
fondness  for  literature,  as  was  shown  when  Giidiano 
Sanseverino  in  the  University  of  Bologna,  and  John 
de  San  Miniato,  a  monk  of  the  Camaldoli  order,  at 
Florence,  forbade  their  hearers  to  read  the  ancient 
poets  and  the  profane  Avriters  of  antiquity.  It  was 
in  answer  to  them  that  he  composed  some  Latin  verses 
which  were  so  much  admired  that  he  received,  as 
Petrarch  had  done,  the  honors  of  a  public  demonstra- 
tion. But  before  the  laurel  wreath  could  be  placed 
upon  his  brows  he  had  passed  away,  in  the  seventy- 
sixth  year  of  his  age,  and  from  the  account  of  his 
funeral  at  Santa  Maria  Novella  which  has  been  handed 
down  to  us,  we  learn  that  the  ceremonial  was  the  same 
as  that  afterwards  observed  at  the  obsequies  of  Leon- 
ardo Bruni  and  ]Marsuppini,  the  Gonfaloniere  in  office 
mounting  the  platform  upon  which  the  coffin  rested, 
and  placing  upon  the  forehead  of  the   defunct   the 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOKENTIXES.  175 

laurel  crown.  His  '^  Political  Letters  ''  are  regarded 
as  his  greatest  work,  but  little  of  what  he  wrote  has 
been  published.  The  Latin  poems  which  appear  in 
the  third  volume  of  the  '^  Illustrious  Italian  Poets " 
are  well  knoA\Ti,  and  his  ^^  Political  Letters "  have 
been  edited  in  turn  by  Abbe  Melius  and  Lami,  but 
they  are  far  from  being  complete. 

There  is  to  be  seen  in  the  church  of  Fiesole  the 
tomb  of  a  bishop  named  Salutati,  who  died  in  14G6, 
and  who  very  possibly  may  have  belonged  to  the 
same  family.  This  prelate,  Avhose  tomb  is  one  of  the 
finest  creations  of  Mine  da  Fiesole,  was  famous  as  a 
jurisconsult,  and  he  wrote  several  works  on  civil  and 
canon  law.  A  great  favorite  of  Pope  Eugenius  IV., 
Kicholas  V.  continued  to  treat  him  with  affection,  and 
made  him  Bishop  of  Fiesole  in  1450. 

Some  writers  have  attributed  this  handsome  mon- 
ument, which  is  such  a  credit  to  the  church  within 
wliicli  it  is  erected,  to  the  first  of  the  Salutati,  but 
works  of  art  possess  the  double  merit  of  being  beau- 
tiful In  tliemselves  and  of  becoming,  in  course  of  time, 
historical  documents.  The  monument  in  cpiestlon  is 
signed  and  dated,  so  that  there  can  be  no  question  as 
to  its  having  been  carved  by  Mino. 

FRANCO  SACCHETTI. 

(133^5-1410.) 

Eacy,  and  at  times  rather  loose  in  liis  stories, 
Sacchetti  is  not  gifted  with  the  same  inventive  powers 


176  FLORENCE. 

as  Boccaccio,  and  he  is  more  tlie  reflex  of  others  than 
a  type  by  himself.  But  he  has  plenty  of  spirit,  and 
it  is  evident  that  he  shares  Avith  his  readers  the 
amusement  which  he  is  trying  to  make  them  feel. 
His  "Tales  "  possess  a  considerable  amount  of  interest 
from  the  fact  that  Sacchetti,  who  was  much  mixed 
up  in  the  course  of  contemporary  events,  introduced 
into  his  stories  characters  taken  from  real  life,  gather- 
ing up  anecdotes  still  fresh  about  Dante,  Giotto,  and 
other  men  of  note.  He  brings  them  vividly  before 
our  eyes,  and  writers  such  as  Yasari,  Scipione  Am- 
mirato,  and  others  still  more  celebrated,  have  been 
glad  to  make  use  of  information  derived  from  his 
writings. 

He  came  of  a  very  good  family,  having  been  a  son 
of  Franco  di  Benci  d'Uguccione.  He  was  connected 
with  the  Dante  family,  and  was  surnamcd  the  Good 
{il  Buono).  His  lirst  literary  efforts  were  in  the 
poetical  line,  and  he  was  classed  among  the  imitators 
of  Petrarch.  He  held  public  office  at  Faenza  and 
San  Miniato,  was  Captain  of  thV.  Florentine  province 
in  the  Romagna,  Ambassador  to  Genoa,  and  Podesta 
at  Bibbiena.  It  is  believed  that  he  wrote  his  "Tales" 
at  Casentino.  The  copy  which  I  have  examined 
contains  about  258,  and  he  is  not  particidar  in  the 
choice  of  a  subject,  so  long  as  it  is  an  amusing  one, 
being  racy  to  the  verge  of  licentiousness.  Some 
fifteen  of  them,  however,  are  of  a  different  character, 
the  heroes  being  such  men  as  Dante  and  Giotto,  and 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  177 

it  is  worthy  of  note  that  while  several  austere  Avriters 
are  immoral  in  their  lives,  he,  with  all  his  light  and 
fanciful  stories,  is  at  bottom  full  of  honesty  and  up- 
rightness. 

Sacchetti  had  three  wives,  all  of  illustrious  descent; 
the  first  being  a  Strozzi,  the  second  a  Gherardini, 
and  the  third  the  daughter  of  Francesco  di  ser  Santi 
Bruni,  and  for  six-and-tAventy  years  there  was  a 
fourth  lady  who  inspired  his  poems,  and  to  whom  he 
dedicated  his  compositions.  He  had  two  sons  ;  one, 
Philip,  being  a  poet,  while  the  other,  Nicholas,  was 
Gonfaloniere  of  Justice  in  1419. 

There  is  much  to  admire  about  him,  for  he  was  at 
once  a  patriot  and  a  gentleman.  His  genial  humor, 
as  well  as  the  incidents  he  related  concerning  the 
most  noted  men  of  his  time,  have  kept  his  name 
alive.  His  public  career  was  a  successful  one,  and 
his  writings  are  instinct  with  force  and  good-humor. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy -five,  beloved  by  Ids 
contemporaries,  and  his  writings,  extending-  from 
grave  to  gay,  comprise  Sermons,  Letters,  and  a  bur- 
lesque poem  (of  Avhich  a  new  edition  was  published 
as  recently  as  1819)  called  ^'  La  Battaglia  dclle  Vec- 
chie  con  Ic  Giovane,"  the  very  title  of  which  shows 
how  amusing  it  must  have  been  in  the  hands  of  a 
writer  so  gifted  with  humor.  He  Avas,  little  as  he 
may  have  imagined  such  to  be  the  case,  both  an  artist 
and  an  historian. 


12 


178  FLOEEXCE. 

BONACCOKSO   PITTI. 

(1335-1425.) 

Pitti  is  an  ancestor  of  the  great  Pitti  of  tlic  fifteenth 
century,  after  whom  the  royal  palace  at  Florence  is 
still  named,  and  his  reputation  as  a  chronicler  is  well 
deserved.  He  may,  indeed,  be  d.escribed  as  one  of 
the  originators  in  Italy  of  that  form  of  literature, 
Avhich,  under  the  name  of  ''  Memoirs,"  is  so  much  ap- 
preciated at  the  present  time. 

He  belonged  to  the  Neri  and  to  the  Pitti ;  that  is 
to  say,  to  a  family  which  had  always  occupied  a  high 
position  in  the  State,  and  which,  by  means  of  the 
wealth  subsequently  acquired  in  trade,  became  the 
equal  of  princes  and  a  rival  of  the  Medici. 

His  life  was  one  long  romance,  and  his  adventures 
are  comparable  with  those  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Casa- 
nova, and  the  Chevalier  Eon.  He  became  a  type  for 
the  anecdotic  history  of  the  Florentines,  and  the  real 
value  of  the  memoirs  which  he  has  left  is  that  they 
give  us  a  realistic  picture — making  due  allowance  for 
exaggeration — ol  the  life  of  a  great  number  of  Floren- 
tines at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Fond  of  gaming  and  duelling,  a  libertine,  adven- 
turous, very  Avell  read,  crafty,  skilful  in  trade,  quite 
capable  of  a  serious  demeanor  when  he  pleased,  full  of 
ambition,  activity,  and  courage,  and  Avith  an  aptitude 
for  rising  with  the  tide  without  allowing  it  to  carry  him 
off  his  feet,  he  played  the   most  opposite  parts,  and 


Pitti  Palace. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  179 

engaged  in  all  kinds  of  business,  while  there  was  not 
a  country  in  Europe  wdiich  he  did  not  visit  at  one 
time  or  another. 

He  was  one  of  those  many  Lombards  who  during 
the  fourteenth  century  went  in  quest  of  fortune  all 
over  the  world.  They  combined  trade  and  gandjling, 
speculation  and  politics,  ever  ready  to  induce  the 
public  to  make  hazardous  investments  or  to  lend 
them  money  at  a  high  rate  of  interst.  Rolling  in 
wealth  one  day,  they  lived  like  princes,  while  the 
next  they  could  not  muster  the  money  to  pay  their 
hotel  bill.  Every  now  and  then  they  returned  to 
their  country  and  took  part  in  the  struggle  of  parties, 
Avitli  tlie  result  that  they  often  rose  to  power  if  they 
did  not  lose  their  live^  in  the  fray.  Bonaccorso  went 
through  all  these  adventures,  and  was  famous  for  his 
gallantries  in  Bavaria.  He  gained  the  friendship  of 
the  Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Berri  in  Paris,  when,  in 
company  with  Bernardo  da  Cino,  another  financial 
adventurer  of  the  same  kidney,  he  Avent  thither 
from  Avignon,  where  they  had  been  endeavoring  to 
effect  a  reconciliation  between  the  Anti-pope  Bene- 
dict XHI.  and  Boniface  IX.  This  forms  a  singularly 
interesting  episode  in  his  life,  as  he  went  through  all 
sorts  of  vicissitudes  at  play,  and  fought  a  duel  with 
Montluc.  Nevertheless  he  succeeded  in  being  looked 
upon  as  a  man  of  genuine  importance  by  the  Floren- 
tines, who  sent  him  to  seek  the  alliance  of  the  French 
King  against  the  Duke  of  Milan ;    and  in   l-tlS  his 


180  FLOEENCE. 

son  Liica  was  in  a  position  to  be  a  freeholder,  and  to 
purchase  the  house  and  Land  of  the  defunct  Roberto 
de  Rossi  for  four  hundred  and  fifty  gold  florins. 
This  is  the  site  of  the  great  Pitti  Palace. 

Towards  the  close  of  his  life,  tired,  in  all  proba- 
bility, of  scouring  the  world,  Bonaccorso  settled  down 
at  Pescia,  Avhich  is  the  last  place  referred  to  in  his 
memoirs,  and  it  was  there  that  he  wrote  the  story  of  his 
life  from  day  to  day,  his  dashing  style  reminding  one, 
as  I  have  said,  of  Cellini  and  Casanova.  He  noted 
down  every  detail,  and  mixed  with  the  happiest  effect 
the  anecdotes  of  his  private  life  with  the  more  im- 
portant events  of  history.  When  the  assassination 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans^  which  was  destined  to  exer- 
cise so  much  influence  upon  the  course  of  French 
history,  occurred  (November  23^  1^0")?  l^is  diary 
contains  the  note  :  "  I  made  a  hundred  gold  florins 
to-day  by  a  bargain  in  wool."  He  was  at  that  time 
master  of  the  horse  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 

In  1423  he  was  still  captain  at  Castellaro  in  the 
Romagna,  and  by  his  orders  seven  inhabitants  at 
Forli,  who  had  schemed  to  open  the  gates  of  the  city 
to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  were  beheaded. 

His  memoirs  were  not  published  until  1720,  three 
centuries  after  he  wrote  them,  the  title  being,  ^^  Cro- 
nica  de  Buonaccorso  Pitti,  con  Annotazioni.  Flor- 
encCj  1720;  in  quarto." 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINRS.  181 

AGNOLO  TAXDOLFINL 

(13G0-144G.) 

Gifted  with  profound  Avisdom,  Pandolfini  is  tlie 
type  of  the  upriglit  citizen  who,  so  far  from  seeking 
honors,  has  them  forced  upon  him.  He  was  a  genial 
writer  and  moralist,  too,  and  his  book,  entitled  "  II 
Govcrno  della  Famiglia,"  is  one  of  the  standard  works 
in  Italy.  Tirahosclii  and  Quinqueni,  Avho  are  nearly 
always  trustworthy,  do  not  speak  of  Pandolfini,  doubt- 
less because  he  Avas  not  a  brilliant  writer.  But  if  he 
did  not  distinguish  himself  by  any  great  action,  his 
career  was  a  useful  and  benevolent  one.  Born  at 
Florence  in  1360,  and  the  son  of  a  merchant  who  had 
made  his  fortune  at  Naples,  he  was,  from  an  early 
age,  independent,  and  being  a  man  of  considerable 
erudition  and  full  of  wisdom,  he  was  twice  elected  to 
the  Signoria,  in  1397  and  1408  ;  and  was  three  times 
Gonfaloniere  of  Justice. 

The  Republic  sent  him  on  missions  to  ^Martin  V., 
the  Emperor  Sigismund,  and  King  Ladislaus,  from 
the  latter  of  whom  he  obtained  the  cession  of  the  ter- 
ritory of  Cortona,  as  an  indemnity  for  the  losses  sus- 
tained during  the  Naples  campaign.  In  1414,  1420, 
and  1431  he  occupied  the  post  of  Gonfaloniere,  and 
he  was  invariably  called  upon  to  arbitrate  between 
his  fellow-citizens  in  their  ever-recurring  intestine 
quarrels.  With  the  sagacity  for  which,  as  I  have 
said,  he  was  famous,  he  had  foreseen  the  disasters  of 


182  FLOEENCE. 

Liicca^  and  had  done  all  in  his  power  to  dissuade  the 
Balia  from  entering  upon  that  war.  He  was  the 
friend  of  Cosimo  the  Elder,  whose  influence  he  con- 
stantly seconded,  and  when  the  latter  was  exiled,  his 
protests  brought  about  his  recall.  He  was  less  suc- 
cessful in  regard  to  Palla  Strozzi,  who  Avas  a  relative 
of  his  wife's,  and  took  his  exile  so  much  to  heart  that 
he  withdrew  from  public  life.  He  led  a  very  peace- 
ful existence  at  his  villa  of  Ponte  a  signa  (or  Ganga- 
landi),  universally  respected,  ever  ready  to  show 
hospitahty  to  great  and  small,  receiving  the  visits  of 
sovereigns  and  pontiffs,  and  anticipating  with  a  serene 
conscience  the  approach  of  death.  It  was  here  that 
he  wrote  his  ^'  II  Governo  della  Famiglia,"  in  lan- 
guage as  elevated  as  the  ideas  expressed  in  it.  A 
very  lucid  summary  of  this  book,  though  only  extend- 
ing over  fifteen  pages,  is  due  to  the  pen  of  Dandolo. 

LEONARDO  BRUNI  AEETIXO. 

(1369-1443.) 

Leonardo  Bruni,  who  is  buried  at  Santa  Croce,  in 
the  splendid  tomb  erected  at  the  cost  of  the  Floren- 
tine Republic  by  Bernardo  Rossellino,  was  one  of  the 
revivers  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  the  sphere  of  his  action  was  altogether 
pacific.  His  only  connection  with  politics  was  when 
he  was  employed  upon  some  conciliatory  mission,  or 
in  rendering  homage  to  some  foreign  sovereign  or  the 
chief  of  some  neighbormg  state.     He  was  famous  for 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  183 

his  learning  and  eloquence,  and  his  character  seems 
to  have  stood  as  high  as  his  learning. 

Leonardo,  born  at  Arezzo,  Avas  educated  at  Flor- 
ence, just  when  the  study  of  Greek  was  being  brought 
into  vogue  by  the  influence  of  the  savants  Avho  had 
come  from  Constantinople.  He  studied  under  Manuel 
Chrysoloras,  and  through  the  influence  of  Poggio  he 
was  appointed  Apostolic  Secretary  to  Pope  Innocent 
YII.,  who  was  inclined  to  think  him  too  young  when 
he  first  saw  him,  though,  on  coming  to  cross-question 
him,  he  recognized  the  young  man's  great  abilities. 
The  successors  of  that  pontiff"  retained  him  in  their 
service,  and  he  held  the  same  post  under  Gregory 
XII.,  Alexander  V.,  and  John  XXIII. 

The  Republic  of  Florence,  anxious  to  secure  a  cit- 
izen of  such  merit,  appointed  him  Chancellor,  a  post 
which  he  retained  until  the  time  of  his  death. 

When  the  Council  of  Constance  deposed  John 
XXIIL,  Leonardo,  looked  upon  as  a  rebel,  fled  with 
him  on  foot,  incurring,  during  three  days,  dangers  of 
every  kind  and  great  privations. 

Like  this  pontiff^,  who  died  there  and  was  interred 
in  the  baptistery  of  San  Giovanni,  in  a  superb  tomb 
carved  by  Donatello,  he  found  refuge  at  Florence, 
and  in  1415,  while  in  peaceful  retirement  at  Arezzo, 
wrote  the  ^'  History  of  Florence,"  a  manuscript  copy 
of  which  is  to  be  found  in  every  Italian  library. 
This  work  produced  a  great  sensation,  and  the  Flor- 
entine Government  sent  him  the  freedom  of  the  city 


184  FLOREXCE. 

and  settled  upon  liim  a  pension,  the  reversion  of  which 
was  to  go  to  liis  children.  It  was  then  that  he  was 
induced  to  accept  the  post  of  Chancellor,  and  he  died 
while  in  office,  his  conduct  shedding  an  additional 
lustre  upon  this  dignified  post. 

He  was  a  man  of  noble  demeanor  and  tried  probity, 
his  high  character  manifesting  itself  in  every  act  of 
his  life.  AU  the  foreigners  who  passed  through  Flor- 
ence were  anxious  to  make  his  acquaintance  and  pay 
him  their  respects,  while  upon  one  occasion  a  learned 
Spaniard,  who  had  been  presented  to  him,  insisted 
upon  remaining  on  his  knees  all  the  time  that  the 
audience  lasted.  He  died  suddenly  in  1443,  to  the 
deep  regret,  not  of  Florence  alone,  but  of  all  Italy. 

The  Republic  intrusted  the  celebrated  Gianozzo 
Manetti  with  the  preparation  of  the  funeral  oration. 
The  coffin  was  placed  upon  a  platform  on  the  piazza 
of  Santa  Croce,  and  Manetti  laid  a  wreath  upon  the 
brow  of  the  dead  man,  upon  whose  breast  had  been 
deposited  a  copy  of  his  ^'  History  of  Florence." 
Bernardo  RosseUino,  who  had  been  instructed  to  erect 
the  mausoleum,  took  this  ceremony  for  his  subject, 
and  left  behind  him  a  work  which  is  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  perfect  ever  shaped  by  human 
hands. 

His  native  Arezzo,  jealous  of  Florence,  was  anxious 
to  rival  her  by  rendering  the  last  homage  to  his  re- 
mains, but  Florence  would  not  part  Avith  them. 

His  works  are  very  numerous;  consisting  for  the 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  185 

most  part  of  translations  from  Latin  and  Orock  niami- 
scripts  and  historical  works,  though  lie  also  wrotf; 
several  biographies,  including  those  of  Dante  and 
Petrarch.  The  best  account  of  this  learned  man,  who 
interests  us  all  the  more  because  his  image  is  brought 
so  vividly  before  us  by  the  chisel  of  Rossellini  while 
so  many  other  men  of  the  fifteenth  century  are  mere 
abstractions,  is  to  be  gained  from  the  work  of  Abbe 
Melius. 

POGGIO  BRACCIOLINL 

(1380-14.39.) 

Pogglo,  born  at  Terranuova  in  the  territory  of 
Florence  in  1380,  sometimes  called  Poggio  Fioren- 
tino,  from  having  been  a  Chancellor  of  the  Republic. 

His  early  studies  were  made  at  Florence,  from 
which  city  he  proceeded  to  Pome,  where  he  was  em- 
ployed in  the  Papal  Secretary's  department,  lie  re- 
mained there  for  half  a  century,  continuously  engaged 
in  profomid  study  and  in  the  drawing  up  of  Bulls  and 
Briefs.  He  was  deep  in  the  confidence  of  successive 
popes,  and  employed  upon  missions  of  the  most  del- 
icate nature.  He  was  present  at  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance, and  whenever  IMartin  V.  and  Eugenius  IV. 
made  a  journey  on  Church  afFiiirs  he  formed  one  of 
their  suite.  Poggio,  in  one  of  his  letters,  says  that 
he  cannot  remember  having,  during  his  fifty  years' 
service  at  the  same  Court^  remained  a  year  in  the 
same  town. 


186  FLORENCE. 

His  specialty  as  a  savant  was  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew,  and  he  took  advantage  of  his  continued 
travels  to  unearth  forgotten  manuscripts,  thereby 
rendering  great  service  to  literature.  He  travelled 
through  the  whole  of  Germany  and  Switzerland,  visit- 
ing all  the  depositories  of  manuscripts,  and  often  mak- 
ing valuable  discoveries.  He  was  seventy-two  years 
of  age  when  the  Holy  Father  allowed  him  to  go  and 
reside  at  Florence,  the  Kepublic  having  induced  him 
to  accept  the  post  of  Chancellor.  But  he  soon  found 
that  the  duties  which  it  involved  were  beyond  his 
st:rength,  and  he  retired  from  public  life,  writing  at 
his  retreat  in  the  suburbs  his  '^  History  of  Florence," 
which  embraces  the  events  that  occurred  from  1350 
to  1453.  This  work  was  in  Latin,  and  it  was  his 
son  Giacomo  Bracciolini  Avho  translated  it  into  the 
vulgar  tongue. 

The  other  literary  achievements  of  Bracciolini  are 
his  translation  into  Latin  of  Xenophon's  '^Cyropsedia'^ 
and  of  the  first  five  books  of  Diodorus  of  Sicily.  In 
the  philosophical  line  he  has  left  a  Avork  entitled 
^^  Historia  Convivialis,"  and  several  moral  treatises, 
including  "  Avarice,  Nobility,  the  Wretchedness  of 
Human  Affairs,"  and  "  The  Misfortunes  of  Princes 
and  Vicissitudes  of  Fortune."  Many  of  his  Epistles 
and  Orations  have  also  been  preserved,  and  they  are 
all  remarkable  for  the  perfect  Latin  in  which  they  are 
couched. 

Poggio  was  very  severe  upon  the  savants  of  his 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  187 

age,  and  being  jealous,  irascible,  and  always  inclined 
to  carp  at  others,  he  was  constantly  engaged  in  con- 
troversies, which  were  carried  on  in  a  spirit  of  vio- 
lence of  which  we  can  scarcely  form  an  adequate 
idea  at  the  present  time.  It  has  been  thought  that 
he  was  animated  by  some  special  dislike  for  Fran- 
cesco Filelfo,  about  whom  he  wrote  four  pamphlets, 
in  which  he  accused  him  of  all  the  evil  deeds  which 
a  human  being  could  well  conmiit,  but  these  are  not 
so  strong  as  the  five  pamphlets  directed  against 
Lorenzo  Valla,  the  Hellenist  and  Secretary  of  the 
King  of  Naples,  who  translated  the  Iliad,  and  Herod- 
otus and  ^Esop.  Guarino  of  Verona  was  not  spared, 
nor  were  the  Bishop  of  Feltro,  Jacopo  Zeno,  and  the 
Duke  of  Savoy.  So  bitter  was  he  that  he  vented 
his  wrath  upon  communities,  involving  them  all  in 
one  common  condemnation.  He  was  very  learned, 
and  had  a  European  reputation,  but  for  all  that,  hatred 
is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  by  which  he  is 
known. 

CARLO  MARSUPPINL 

(1399-1453.) 

Carlo  Marsuppini  and  Leonardo  Bruni  cannot  well 
be  spoken  of  apart.  They  were  contemporaries,  both 
had  the  same  career  and  much  the  same  intellectual 
tendencies,  and  both  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
handed  down  to  posterity  in  the  work  of  men  of  genius. 

While  RosseUino  has  enshrined  to  us  the  features 


188  FLOKENCR 

of  Leonardo  Brimi,  Desiderio  da  Settignano  has  im- 
mortalized the  name  of  Carlo  Marsuppini  by  the 
monument  in  Santa  CrocOj  which  is  opposite  that 
erected  to  the  former. 

Gregory,  the  father  of  Carlo,  Avas  Governor  of 
Genoa  nnder  Charles  YI.  From  Genoa  he  came  to 
Florence,  where  he  acquired,  in  1431,  the  rights  of 
citizenship.  Carlo  was  intrusted  to  the  care  of  John 
of  Ravenna,  who  encouraged  him  to  study  ancient 
literature.  He  chose  the  scholastic  career,  and  was 
a  candidate  for  the  professorship  of  literature  at  the 
University  of  Florence.  This  post  having  been  given 
to  Filelfo,  Carlo  became  his  bitter  enemy,  and  when 
the  former  was  banished  from  Florence  in  1434,  he 
succeeded  to  the  vacant  post. 

As  his  pupils  comprised  two  nephews  of  Pope 
Eugenius  IV.,  the  latter,  in  return,  appointed  him 
Apostolic  Secretary,  and  in  1444  he  took  the  place 
of  Chancellor  of  the  Florentine  Republic  left  vacant 
by  the  death  of  his  compatriot,  Leonardo  Bruni.  It 
w^as  in  this  quality  that  he  presented  an  address  to 
the  Emperor  Frederick  HI.,  when  the  latter  passed 
through  Florence  in  1452 ;  the  reply  was  made  by 
^neas  Sylvius,  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  the  popes,  under  the  title  of  Pius  II.,  and 
who  was  at  that  time  secretary  to  the  Emperor. 
^neas  Sylvius  made  an  impromptu  reply,  and  Mar- 
suppini, Avho  was  expected  to  make  a  second  speech 
in   answer  to  this,  was  at  a  loss  what  to  say.     This 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  189 

incident  caused  great  excitement  at  the  time,  for 
Marsuppini  was  oblig-ed  to  turn  round  to  his  neigh- 
bor Manetti,  and  ask  his  assistance.  His  real  abil- 
ities do  not  appear,  however,  to  have  been  called  into 
question,  for  the  famous  Matteo  Palmieri  was  in- 
structed to  prepare  a  funeral  oration,  and  to  place  a 
wreath  upon  him  after  death,  as  had  been  done  in  the 
case  of  his  predecessor. 

We  have  no  direct  proof  of  his  ability,  for  he  left 
very  few  works  behind  him ;  but  Poggio,  whose  ex- 
cellent judgment  is  beyond  all  doubt,  introduces  Mar- 
suppini as  one  of  the  characters  in  his  dialogue  ^'De 
Infelicitate,''  and  both  Flavio  Biondo  and  Platina  have 
spoken  in  very  eulogistic  terms  of  him. 

His  best-known  work  was  a  translation  in  hexam- 
eters of  the  singular  poem  attributed  to  Homer, 
^^The  Batrachomyomachie,'' the  first  edition  of  which 
was  published  in  Parma  in  1492.  His  letters,  like 
those  of  Leonardo  Bruni,  are  highly  interesting,  for 
he  was  in  more  or  less  frequent  intercourse  Avith  the 
most  celebrated  men  of  the  day.  i\Iany  personal 
details  concerning  him  are  to  be  found  in  the  '^  Vos- 
sian  Letters "  of  Apostolo  Zeno  and  in  Vespasiano 
Fiorentino. 

Those  two  tombs  of  Leonardo  Bruni  and  of  ^liw- 
suppini  do  honor  to  human  genius,  for  Greek  art 
itself  has  produced  nothing  more  perfect,  and  if  the 
names  of  the  two  men  who  are  buried  in  them  had 
not  been  kept  alive  by  the  merit  of  their  own  works 


190  FLORENCE. 

the  sculptors  who  have  carved  their  likenesses  in 
marble  would  have  immortalized  them.  Carlo  Mar- 
suppini  died  at  the  age  of  iifty-four,  and  the  funeral 
oration  pronounced  by  Palmieri  is  still  extant. 

His  name,  together  with  that  of  Gianozzo  Manetti 
and  Leonardo  Bruni,  constantly  recurs  in  the  history 
of  the  little  courts  of  the  Romagna  and  the  Marches, 
for  he  was  continually  being  employed  as  an  inter- 
mediary between  the  Vatican  and  the  princes  who 
were  attached  to  the  Holy  See  as  Vicars  of  the 
Church,  such  as  the  Estes,  the  Montefeltros,  the 
Malatestas,  and  even  the  Sforzas. 

BRUXELLESCHI. 

(1377-1446.) 

As  an  architect  Filippo  di  ser  BruneUeschi  deserves 
a  place  apart  among  the  artists  of  his  day,  for  he  un- 
questionably comes  first  of  the  reformers  avIio,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  substituted  in 
place  of  Gothic  architecture  the  ancient  forms  adapted 
to  modern  requirements.  But  it  need  hardly  be  said 
that  so  important  a  movement,  destined  to  effect  a 
complete  revolution  in  its  way,  could  not  be  the  work 
of  one  man.  A  whole  generation  of  thinkers  and 
artists  concurred  to  carry  it  through  when  once  the 
idea  Avas  ^^  in  the  air,"  to  use  a  modern  phrase,  and 
when  everything  was  tending  towards  its  develop- 
ment. Dante  himself  was  one  of  the  pioneers,  and 
Giotto,  Orcagna,  Arnolfo  di  Lapo,  and  John  of  Pisa 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  191 

wore,  almost  unknown  to  themselves,  travelling  in  the 
same  direetiun.  Their  style  was  more  chaste  than 
that  of  tlieir  predecessors  ;  they  had  a  clearer  percep- 
tion of  tlieir  purpose  and  ideas,  and  having  the  cour- 
age to  be  simple  in  their  designs  at  a  time  when 
the  grotesque  was  still  in  fashion,  they  extricated,  in 
their  architectural  conceptions,  the  shape  and  the  line 
from  among  the  mass  of  parasitical  decoration  which 
concealed  the  trunk  and  the  branches  of  the  majestic 
tree. 

Brunelleschi  still  further  accentuated  the  transition, 
while  Ghiberti,  Masaccio,  Donatello,  Mino  da  Fiesole, 
and  Albert],  following  in  the  same  track,  completed 
the  transformation.  The  human  countenance,  still 
enveloped  in  the  conventional  primness,  which  was 
not  without  a  grace  of  its  own,  gradually  became 
more  animated,  the  figure  lost  its  stiffness,  the  body 
ceased  to  be  motionless,  and  the  eyes,  hitherto  closed 
to  the  light,  flashed  with  all  the  warmth  of  passion 
and  of  life.  The  victory  over  marble  was,  in  other 
Avords,  Avon.  These  innovators  in  architecture,  after 
having  endeavored  to  adopt  a  middle  course  between 
their  aspirations  and  the  respect  which  they  felt  for 
their  predecessors,  eventually  put  their  veto  upon  the 
original  style,  and  instead  of  allowing  the  cathedrals 
to  be  enveloped  in  gloom,  as  they  Avere  in  the  ^Middle 
Ages,  Avhen  sinister  symbols  and  mysterious  devices 
Avere  all  the  fashion,  they  let  in  floods  of  light 
through  their  spacious  porticos.      The  new  style  of 


192  FLORENCE. 

architecture  expressed  at  once  strength,  nobility,  and 
simplicity,  a  new  system  being  created  out  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  old. 

Simple,  logical,  and  grand  without  effort,  based 
solely  upon  the  laAV  of  propositions  and  the  mutual 
relation  of  different  parts  with  each  other,  the  new 
architecture,  though  evidently  inspired  by  antiquity, 
had  its  individual  grace  and  elegance,  while  its  origi- 
nality consisted  in  its  being  appropriated  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  country  without  any  concession 
Avhich  was  not  compatible  Avith  the  climate,  the  nature 
of  the  materials,  and  the  customs  of  the  time.  Orna- 
mentation occupied  merely  a  secondary,  almost  an 
accessory  position,  being  only  employed  in  the  new 
system  to  indicate  the  various  members  and  the  main 
divisions.  At  no  time,  it  may  safely  be  asserted, 
were  the  Avaters  which  issued  from  this  source,  and 
Avhich  gradually  formed  a  torrent  of  genius  spreading 
throughout  Italy,  more  pure  and  Avholesome  than  at 
the  fountain-head.  Lombardi,  Leopardi,  Bramante, 
and  Fra  Giocondo  shoAved  themselves  to  be  gifted 
Avith  elegance  in  detail,  as  they  AA'cre  full  of  force  and 
grace  in  their  conception.  But  they  ncA^er  recoA^ered 
that  chaste  grandeur,  characteristic  of  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  AA'hich  so  commands  our  ad- 
miration as  to  prcA^ent  our  doing  full  justice  to  the  six- 
teenth century,  rich  as  that  also  Avas  in  every  branch 
of  intellectual  industry. 

It  is  interesting  to   trace   the   process  AAhich  led 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOEENTIXES.  193 

Brimcllcsclii,  the  successor  of  Giotto,  Arnolfo  di  Lapo, 
and  Taddeo  Gaddi,  all  devoted  to  Gothic  art,  to  break 
openly  with  these  tendencies  and  to  strike  out  in  a 
new  direction,  and  this  can  best  be  done  by  describ- 
ing briefly  the  circumstances  of  his  life.  He  was 
born  at  Florence  in  1377,  and  the  date  is  an  import- 
ant one  to  remember,  for  it  marked  the  passing  away 
of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  germ  of  the  Renaissance. 
He  arrived  at  manhood  as  the  fifteenth  century,  of 
which  he  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  bright 
lights,  was  just  dawning. 

When  one-and-tAventy  years  of  age  Brunelleschi, 
who  had  objected  to  following  the  profession  of  notary, 
had  already  given  striking  proof  of  his  capacity  in 
mechanical  constructions  of  every  kind,  and  all  fur- 
ther attempt  to  make  him  adopt  any  other  career  was 
abandoned.  He  entered  the  Goldsmiths'  College,  and 
was,  like  most  great  artists,  enrolled  among  the  adepts 
of  this  profession.  The  goldsmitli's  art  was  a  very 
good  school  of  training,  requiring  as  it  did  inventive 
powers,  elegance,  a  great  dexterity  of  touch,  and  some 
knowledge  of  all  kinds  of  drawing;  while  the  (piall- 
lios  of  the  designer  are  called  forth  in  the  general 
composition,  those  of  the  sculptor  in  the  execution  of 
the  figures,  and  those  of  the  painter  in  the  harmoni- 
zation of  all  the  colored  parts. 

His  earliest  and  most  intimate  friend  was  Donatello, 
in  whose  society  he  passed  all  his  youth,  afterwards 
making  a  long  stay  Avith  him  at  Ivome,  and  travelling 

13 


194  FLOKENCR 

with  him  both  at  home  and  abroad.  After  having 
executed  several  works  of  sculptm^e  he  made  his 
debut  as  an  architect,  and  became  engaged  in  various 
undertakings  in  and  around  Florence.  It  was  during 
this  first  part  of  his  life  that  he  devoted  his  attention 
to  the  science  of  perspective  with  sufficient  detail  to 
be  able  to  draw  up  all  the  rules,  and  make  of  them  a 
guide  for  the  instruction  of  his  pupils  and  friends.  It 
is  even  said  that  Masaccio  derived  his  knowledge  of 
this  art  from  Brunelleschi.  He  did  not,  however, 
give  up  sculpture,  and  between  the  years  1398  and 
1404  he  carved  that  figure  of  Christ  in  Santa  Maria 
Novella,  which  has  become  famous  as  having  given 
rise  to  the  misunderstanding  between  him  and  Dona- 
teUo,  whom  he  reproached  with  having  given  too  ma- 
terial an  expression  to  the  Divine  countenance. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  celebrated 
competition  for  the  execution  of  the  Baptistery  gates 
was  opened,  the  competitors  being  Lorenzo  Ghiberti, 
Jacopo  della  Querela,  Simone  da  Colle,  Francesco  di 
Yaldambrina,  and  Xiccolo  d'Arezzo. 

There  is  a  story  told  by  Yasari,  and  it  has  never 
been  controverted,  that  Ghiberti  and  Brunelleschi 
having  been  called  upon  to  treat  the  same  subject 
(the  Sacrifice  of  Abraham),  the  latter  spontaneously 
adjudged  the  prize  to  the  former,  a  mark  of  generosity 
very  characteristic  of  him.  It  is  quite  certain  that, 
Avhethcr  the  story  is  true  or  not,  Ghiberti  was  awarded 
the  prize,  and  that  he  carved  the  gates,  but  it  is  in- 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOREXTINES.  195 

teresting  to  compare  the  two  designs  in  bronze,  Avhich 
may  be  seen  in  the  Bargello. 

It  was  after  this  competition  that  Brunelleschi  went 
to  Rome  with  Donatello.  On  arriving  there  he  with- 
drew from  all  external  affairs,  and  with  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale  of  a  small  property  at  Scttignano  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  her  monuments.  It  is  easy  to 
conceive  what  ancient  Kome  Avas  like  in  1405,  and 
with  what  transports  of  admiration  it  must  have  in- 
spired two  such  artists  as  Brunelleschi  and  Donatello. 
They  seem  to  have  lived  in  a  continual  fever,  making 
drawings,  being  present  at  all  the  excavations,  and 
conducting  some  on  their  own  accomit ;  spending 
whole  days  among  the  ruins,  measuring  palaces,  tem- 
ples, and  baths,  and  endeavoring  to  discover  the  secret 
of  their  splendor.  Brunelleschi  gradually  came  to 
comprehend  the  principle  of  each  of  the  orders  of  ar- 
chitecture employed  by  the  architects  of  antiquity, 
reasoning  out  the  use  of  the  various  forms,  and  re- 
storing those  parts  which  had  been  destroyed  by  time. 
Thus  it  was  that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  discardino: 
the  contorted  and  complicated  forms  of  the  degener- 
ate Gothic  architecture  of  the  day,  and  of  adapting 
to  the  requirements  of  his  own  times  those  which  had 
been  employed  by  the  ancients,  though  a  man  of  so 
much  taste  and  imagination  was  naturally  desirous  to 
make  the  various  parts  of  his  work  harmonize,  and 
to  combine  the  new  forms  which  he  was  anxious  to 
employ  with  those  adopted  by  his  predecessors. 


196  FLOEENCE. 

It  was  in  the  seclusion  of  the  Eternal  City  that  he 
elaborated  his  plan  for  the  completion  of  Santa  Maria 
del  Fiore^  the  Duomo  of  Florence^  which  had  been 
left  unfinished  since  the  death  of  Arnolfo  di  Cambio.  It 
is  quite  certain  that  he  had  made  a  special  study  of 
the  vaulted  roofs  of  Thermae  and  Pantheons,  Avith  the 
firm  intention  of  immortalizing  his  name  by  finishing 
the  cupola  of  Santa  Maria. 

Donatello  having  left  him  at  Rome  in  order  to  carry 
out  the  many  works  which  he  had  undertaken  at 
Florence,  Brunelleschi  continued  his  studies  with  re- 
doubled ardor,  but  having  been  attacked  with  fever, 
he  also  left  Eome  and  returned  to  his  native  city. 
This  Avas  the  time  when  the  completion  of  the  Duomo 
was  being  pressed  forward,  but  the  task  of  bridging 
over  the  immense  space  seemed  an  impossibility  to 
most  of  the  architects  and  engineers  who  were  called 
in.  The  most  ludicrous  suggestions  were  made,  and 
after  a  general  meeting  of  the  committee,  Brunelleschi, 
thinking  that  his  opinion  was  not  received  with  suf- 
ficient deference,  went  back  to  Rome.  The  commit- 
tee, however,  induced  him  to  return  and  give  them 
the  benefit  of  his  advice. 

His  idea  Avas  that  a  competition  should  be  opened 
to  artists  of  every  nationality,  each  one  making  a 
model,  though  he  made  no  secret  that  his  own  plan 
would  be  that  of  an  arch  in  one  span.  A  great  many 
of  those  Avho  were  present  scoffed  at  the  idea  of  such 
a  thing,  but  the  competition  was  opened  in  accord- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLOEEXTINES.  197 

ancc  with  his  advice,  and  his  modcil,  the  existence  of 
which  he  had  kept  secret,  was  at  last  accepted.  But 
a  few  months  afterwards,  Lorenzo  Ghiberti,  who  had 
just  obtained  a  great  success  by  the  execution  of  his 
famous  "  Gate  of  Paradise,"  was  appointed  his  assist- 
ant, and  Brunelleschi,  Avho  was  much  vexed  at  the 
interference,  and  who  knew  that  Ghiberti  had  no 
aptitude  for  this  description  of  work,  resorted  to  a 
very  ingenious  stratagem  for  getting  rid  of  him.  He 
took  to  his  bed,  and  pretended  to  be  too  ill  to  attend 
to  the  work.  Ghiberti  was  soon  involved  in  hopeless 
difficulties,  and  the  committee  compensating  him  for 
what  he  had  done,  left  Brunelleschi  to  finish  the  work 
by  himself. 

This  was  the  great  achievement  of  his  life,  the  one 
which  has  immortalized  his  name,  and  which  has  un- 
questionably exercised  the  greatest  influence.  Michael 
Angclo,  as  he  looked  up  at  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore  be- 
fore he  commenced  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  is  reported 
to  have  exclaimed,  "  I  will  take  you  and  project  you 
into  the  sky." 

His  suggestion  was  an  octagonal  cupola  resting 
upon  a  drum  pierced  with  windows,  which  would 
serve  the  double  purpose  of  letting  in  plenty  of  Ught 
and  of  lessening  the  weight.  The  artistic  part  of  the 
work,  the  arrangement,  the  architectural  lines,  and 
the  decorative  combinations  are  equally  interesting, 
and  when  one  has  lived  at  Florence  long  enough  to 
go  into  the  details  of  this  work,  one  cannot  but  ad- 


198  FLORENCK 

mire  the  grandeur  of  the  Imes  employed  Ly  Bruncl- 
leschi,  and  the  ingenious  way  in  which  he  adapted  to 
a  Gothic  building  the  new  style  which  he  had  intro- 
duced. In  order  thoroughly  to  appreciate  the  grand 
general  effects  obtained  by  the  men  of  genius  who 
designed  the  curves  of  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  of 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  and  of  St.  Peter's,  one  must 
contemplate  on  the  horizon,  from  the  heights  of  the 
Pincio  or  of  Fiesole,  these  bold  constructions  as 
they  stand  out  in  the  twilight,  casting  a  bluish 
shadow  upon  the  golden  background  of  the  setting 
sun. 

Brunelleschi,  being  commissioned  by  the  Pazzi 
family  to  build  a  private  chapel  in  Santa  Croce, 
erected  a  building  which  redounds  very  much  to  his 
credit,  for  it  is  elegant  in  detail  and  full  of  grandeur 
in  its  general  effect.  He  employed  the  Corinthian 
style,  and  with  the  aid  of  Luca  della  Robbia  obtained 
some  A'ery  novel  effects  by  applying  to  the  decoration 
of  the  panels  and  ceilings  the  majolica  ware  discovered 
by  the  latter,  the  result  showing  how  much  a  man 
of  genius  could  make  out  of  this  art  of  glazed  terra- 
cotta. 

The  interior  of  the  chapel,  to  the  decoration  of 
which  Luca  della  Robbia  also  contributed,  is  so  vast 
and  imposing  that  in  1565  four  thousand  friars  met 
there,  the  privilege  of  using  this  chapel  being  ac- 
corded to  the  chapter  of  Santa  Croce  by  the  Pazzi 
family. 


Cloisters  of  S.  Crocc,  and  Pazzi  Chapel. 

BrunelleschL 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  109 

Brunollesclii  was  also  tlie  arcliiti.'ct  of  the  liand- 
some  portico  in  the  Piazza  dell'  Annunziata  whicli 
forms  the  faeade  of  wliat  in  his  day  was  called  the 
Ricovero  dei  Gettatclli  (or  Foundling  Hospital).  The 
beauty  and  simplicity  of  these  buildings,  the  sole 
richness  of  which  consists  in  their  elegance  of  shape, 
seeing  that  they  are  destined  for  such  a  humble  pur- 
pose, can  only  be  fidly  appreciated  from  the  interior. 
The  hospital  of  the  Innocents  was  begun  in  1421, 
the  Council  being  stimulated  to  undertake  the  work 
by  an  eloquent  appeal  from  Leonardi  Bruni.  On  the 
24th  of  January,  1444,  it  was  opened  and  the  man- 
agement placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Guild  of  Silk 
Workers. 

Filippo  ]\raria  Yisconti  sent  for  Brunelleschi  to 
build  him  a  fortress  at  Milan  ;  and  he  was  afterwards 
employed  to  erect  the  citadels  of  Vicopisano,  Pisa, 
and  Pesaro. 

The  church  of  San  Lorenzo  at  Florence,  which 
contains  the  tombs  of  the  Medici,  and  was  erected  at 
the  expense  of  Giovanni  d'Averardo  and  of  Cosimo, 
Father  of  his  Country,  is  also  his  Avork.  He  had 
proposed  to  erect  the  IMedici  Palace  upon  a  much 
more  sumptuous  scale  than  was  afterwards  adopted, 
but  Cosimo  deemed  his  plan  too  magniiicent,  and 
Brunelleschi,  who  had  set  his  heart  upon  building  for 
the  House  of  j\Iedici  a  palace  of  unparalleled  splen- 
dor, destroyed  his  model.  He  began  for  the  Scolari 
family  the  curious   temple   Dcgli  Angeli,  which  was 


200  FLOKENCE. 

never  completed^  as  the  money  whicli  had  been  set 
apart  for  it  was  spent  on  the  Lucca  war. 

The  Pitti  Palace  is  also  his  work^  and  as  the  family 
for  which  he  built  had  not  the  means  of  going  on  Avith 
it^  Eleonora  di  Toledo,  Duchess  of  Florence,  v/ife  of 
Cosimo,  purchased  it,  and  spent  an  immense  sum  upon 
its  completion.  It  is  a  heavy  building,  and  so  many 
changes  have  been  made  by  successive  architects 
that  it  does  not  produce  nearly  the  effect  it  should. 
In  1549  the  Pitti  Palace  became  a  royal  residence, 
and  Ammanati  added  to  it  the  handsome  courtyard 
upon  which  the  three  inner  facades  look. 

The  services  of  Brunelleschi  Avere  now  in  request 
throughout  the  whole  of  Italy.  In  1445  the  ]\Iarquis 
of  Mantua  wanted  him  for  the  Signoria,  while  Fran- 
cesco Sforza  Avas  treating  Avith  liim  for  the  fortifica- 
tions of  Pisa,  and  at  about  the  same  time  he  under- 
took the  building  of  the  Barbadori  Palace  and  the 
Casa  Giuntini  at  Florence. 

BruneUeschi  Avas  the  leading  architect  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  and  Avhen  he  died  on  the  16th  of 
April,  1446,  he  AA^as  buried  in  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore, 
beneath  that  dome  Avhich  he  raised  to  such  a  height 
that  from  afar  the  traveller  sees  it  as  he  approaches 
the  city. 

Buggiano,  a  sculptor  of  no  great  renoAvn,  carA^ed 
the  bust  over  his  tomb,  and  the  foUoAA'ing  inscription, 
composed  by  Marsuppini,  shoAvs  in  Avhat  esteem  he 
was  held  by  his  contemporaries  : 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLOKENTIXES.  201 

D.  S. 
"Quantum  riiilippus  arcliitectus  arte  Dicdakc  valuerit  ;  cum 
hujus  celeberrimi  templi  mira  testudo,  tum  i)lures  machinae  divino 
ingenio  ab  eo  adinventse  documento  esse  possunt.  Quapropter, 
ob  eximias  sui  animi  dotes,  singularesque  virtutes  ejus  b.  m. 
Corpus  XV  kal.  Maias  anno  MCCCCXLVI  in  hac  liumo  sup- 
posita  grata  patria  sepeliri  jussit." 

It  cannot  be  said  that  as  regards  the  number  of 
works  executed,  this  great  artist  can  compare  with 
many  of  his  compatriots,  for,  witli  the  exception  of 
the  Pazzi  Chapel  at  Santa  Croce,  he  never  had  an 
opportunity  of  erecting  a  complete  monument,  and 
even  this  chapel  is  only  an  annex  to  the  great  church. 
But  he  was  a  forerunner,  and  so  gifted  with  great 
inventive  powers  that  it  is  not  perhaps  too  much  to 
describe  him  as  the  greatest  man  of  his  age  in  his 
own  domain.  Alberti,  of  course,  played  a  great  part, 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  was  a  prodigy  of  genius,  and 
Michael  Angelo  knows  no  rival,  but  Brunelleschi 
holds  his  own,  and  merits  a  prominent  place  in  the 
Pantheon  of  Florentine  celebrities.  His  ashes  are 
not  in  Santa  Croce,  and  it  is  meet  that  he  should  rest 
in  Santa  IMaria  del  Fiore,  the  scene  of  his  greatest 
labors  and  triumphs. 

LEO  BATTISTA  ALBERTI. 

(1404-1472.) 

Alberti  did  not  contribute  so  much  as  Brunellesclii 
to  this  renovation  of  the  arts,  but,  like  all  those  who 


202  FLORENCE. 

propagate  the  ideas  of  others  bj  the  pen,  his  influ- 
ence was  very  considerable.  Upon  the  one  hand 
there  are  the  silent  and  secluded  artists,  whose  prov- 
ince it  is  to  produce  and  to  prove  the  reality  of  progress 
by  marching  in  advance  of  their  contemporaries, 
while,  upon  the  other,  there  are  the  men  of  critical 
mind  who,  more  closely  identified  with  the  movement 
of  their  time,  while  not  idle  themselves,  draw  conclu- 
sions from  the  w^orks  of  others,  and  regulate  the  final 
laws  of  the  new  art  in  which  they  have  been  the  fore- 
runners. Alberti  belonged  to  this  second  category, 
and  while  putting  the  principles  of  Brunelleschi  into 
practice,  he  brought  them  within  the  understanding 
of  the  whole  world,  and  did  much  to  propagate  the 
new  ideas.  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Daniel  Barbaro,  Fra 
Giocondo,  and  Francesco  Colonna  carried  on  the  same 
work,  and  to  his  well-known  treatises,  ^'  De  re  ^di- 
ficatoria,"  "  De  Pictura,"  and  '^  De  Componenda 
Statua,"  added  "  The  Commentaries  on  Vitruvius," 
and  that  strange  book  entitled  "  The  Dream  of  Poly- 
philus,  or  Hypnerotomachia,"  which  is  such  a  curious 
mixture  of  truth  and  fancy. 

The  effect  produced  by  the  construction  of  the 
"  Temple  of  the  Malatestas  "  Avas  very  great,  for  it 
was  no  slight  achievement  at  that  date  to  regulate  the 
laws  and  determine  the  tendency  of  architectural  com- 
positions, while  it  was  an  even  more  marked  success, 
at  a  time  when  a  man  of  genius  like  Brunelleschi  had 
shaken  ofi"  the  fetters  of  ancient  usage  and  struck  out 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  203 

a  line  of  liis  own^  to  confirm  the  value  of  these  prin- 
ciples by  erecting  a  marble  temple,  all  the  architect- 
ural elements  in  which,  while  borrowed  from  antiquity, 
were  modified  and  rejuvenated  by  the  modern  spirit. 
A  natural  son  of  Lorenzo  Alberti  and  of  ^largherita 
di  Messer  Piero  Bcnini,  Leo  Battista  expiated  from 
his  birth  the  ardor  with  which  his  family  had  plunged 
into  a  struggle  against  the  Albizzi  during  the  bloody 
contests  between  the  two  factions  of  black  and  white 
in  the  fourteenth  century.  Ilis  fother  and  mother 
were  exiled  to  Genoa,  where  he  was  born  in  1404, 
and  it  Avas  only  in  1428  that,  at  the  special  request 
of  Pope  Martin  V.,  the  interdict  Avhicli  had  led  to  the 
dispersion  of  this  powerful  family  throughout  Europe 
was  raised.  There  Avere  several  branches  of  the 
family,  Leo  Battista  belonging  to  that  of  Bernardo 
di  Xerozzo  (1388),  who  married  first  a  Pazzi,  and 
afterwards  a  Gualterio  dei  Bardi.  The  French  Dukes 
Albert  de  Luynes  and  Chaulnes  are  descended  from 
Caroccio  di  Lapo  (1347),  through  Tommaso,  born  in 
1409.  Between  the  years  1408  and  1417  four  of 
the  Alberti  were  interred  at  Paris  in  the  Vieux 
Augustins  Church,  and  before  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury more  than  seventy  members  of  this  fomily  had 
died  in  exile  at  Bruges,  Yiviers,  Paris,  Montpellier, 
Avignon,  Genoa,  Brescia,  Mantua,  Padua,  Venice, 
Frioul,  the  Romagna,  London,  Flanders,  and  even  in 
Cyprus,  to  which  they  were  banished  by  a  decree  of 
the  Balia. 


204  FLORENCE. 

The  original  text  of  the  decree,  or  the  ^^Provisioni," 
is  to  be  found  in  Passerini,  and  the  tenor  of  it  shows 
how  high  party  feeling  ran.  The  first  decree  (1387) 
orders  that  two  leaders  of  the  family  shall  be  exiled 
a  hundred  miles  away  from  Florence,  and  debars  all 
the  other  members  of  the  family  from  the  privilege 
of  holding  any  magisterial  office ;  in  1393  they  are 
all  made  to  suffer  for  a  conspiracy  which  had  been 
hatched  by  one  of  them  ;  and  in  1400  three  of  their 
relatives  are  put  to  the  question  in  order  to  extort 
from  them  a  confession  of  the  latter's  guilt,  and  then 
executed,  the  Grand  Council  deciding  that  all  the 
Alberti,  including  those  not  yet  born,  shall  be  de- 
prived of  civic  rights.  In  1412  a  reward  of  two 
thousand  gold  florins  (£1800)  is  promised  to  the  per- 
son who  kills  the  four  heads  of  the  Alberti  family  at 
Florence,  and  half  that  sum  to  the  slayer  of  any  one 
Alberti,  provided  that  he  is  not  under  eighteen  years 
of  age.  If  the  slayer  is  himself  in  banishment  he  is 
to  receive  a  full  pardon,  and  if  not,  he  is  entitled  to 
ask  for  the  pardon  of  any  two  friends  5  while,  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  he  is  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of 
carrying  arms.  All  the  Alberti  property  was  con- 
fiscated, and  the  chains  which  formed  their  blazon 
were  removed  from  the  walls  of  the  churches,  chapels, 
and  palaces. 

Such  were  the  conditions  under  which  Leo  Battista 
was  born,  far  from  the  land  of  his  ancestors  and  his 
father's  home.     We  cannot  wonder,  therefore,  at  the 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLOKEXTIXES.  205 

tone  of  bitter  suffering  wliich  pervades  liis  letter  to 
Brimellcsclii  Avhen  he  speaks  of  Lis  long  exile,  and 
his  soul  being  fortified  in  the  school  of  adversity. 
The  All)izzi  persecuted  this  family  with  unwearying 
hatred  until  the  Medici  began  to  get  the  upper  hand, 
and  it  Avas  not  until  1428  that  justice  was  done  to  one 
of  them,  this  act  of  tardy  clemency  being  completed 
in  1434  by  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  who  reinstated  all  the 
Albert!  in  their  property  and  ancient  dignities. 

The  education  of  Leo  Battista  was  of  course 
affected  by  these  circumstances,  and  he  was  trained 
in  the  midst  of  difficulties  and  struggles.  lie  was 
very  proficient  in  all  equestrian  exercises,  and  Mura- 
tori,  in  his  "  Rerum  Italicarum  Scriptores,"  repre- 
sents him  as  being  a  great  athlete  at  the  Olympian 
games.  He  completed  his  studies  at  Bologna,  and 
before  he  was  twenty  years  old  had  published  a  Latin 
comedy  entitled  ^'  Philodoxeos,"  which  he  signed 
^'  Lepidus  Comicus.''  This  device  was  so  successful 
that  Manuccio,  a  century  and  a  half  afterwards 
(1588),  published  it  at  Lucca  as  being  by  Plautus, 
under  the  title  of  '^Lepidi  Comici  veteris  Philodoxeos, 
fabula  ex  antiquitate  eruta."  It  should  be  added, 
however,  that  a  canon  of  Bamberg,  Albert  von  Eyb, 
declared  the  comedy  to  be  of  modern  origin,  and  to 
have  been  the  work  of  Carlo  Marsuppini.  Poggio 
Bracciolini  was  the  confidant  of  Alberti  in  this  mat- 
ter, and  many  years  afterwards  he  revealed  the  secret 
to  Lionel  of  Este.     When  Leo  Battista  was  allowed 


206  FLORENCE. 

to  return  to  Florence  in  1428  he  had  ah'eady  proved 
hmiself  to  be  a  man  eager  to  ascertain  and  investigate 
every  subject  of  human  interest,  of  a  generous  dis- 
position, endowed  with  the  most  varied  gifts,  and  a 
worthy  forerunner  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  At  first 
engrossed  in  the  study  of  the  Law,  he  afterwards  cul- 
tivated the  exact  sciences,  physics,  and  the  art  of 
naval  constructions,  while  with  all  this  he  practiced 
medicine,  and  it  was  only  after  having  given  proof 
of  his  proficiency  in  each  of  these  branches  that  he 
settled  himself  down  to  literature.  He  wrote  in 
Latin,  but  his  Italian  poems  are  still  extant,  and  they 
give  a  complete  contradiction  to  those  who,  during 
his  day,  asserted  that  he  Avrote  in  Latin  to  conceal 
the  imperfections  of  his  style  in  Italian.  He  intro- 
duced the  Latin  metre  into  poetry,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered very  venturesome  at  that  time  to  treat  ele- 
vated subjects  in  that  language.  Alberti  woidd  have 
remained  famous  even  if  he  had  not  written  anything 
more,  for  he  had  already  acquired  great  celebrity  as 
a  physicist  and  an  astronomer.  The  Alberti  boHde 
(perfected  a  long  time  afterwards  by  Cook),  used  for 
measuring  the  depth  of  the  sea,  was  his  invention,  as 
also  w^ere  the  camera  liickla  and  several  instruments 
which  facilitated  an  exact  observation  of  the  stars. 

It  was,  however,  to  architecture,  which  during  the 
Renaissance  necessitated  the  knowledge  and  the  prac- 
tice of  all  the  other  arts,  that  he  owed  his  greatest 
celebrity,  though  he  only  took  to  it  thoroughly  after 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  207 

he  liatl  gone  through  the  muhifold  career  described 
above.  Deeply  imbued  Avith  the  love  of  antiquity, 
and  well  versed  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  manuscripts, 
Avith  Yitruvius  at  his  fingers^  ends,  and  an  enthusias- 
tic admirer  of  the  monuments  discovered  in  Greece 
and  Italy,  he  determined  to  familiarize  himself  with 
the  remains  of  the  grand  imperial  epoch.  Biondo  da 
Forli  received  him  at  Rome  and  presented  liim  to 
Pope  Nicholas  V.,  and  according  to  Palmieri  and 
Vasari  he  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  execu- 
tion of  the  ambitious  projects  of  this  pontiff,  who  did 
more  for  the  imperial  city  than  any  of  his  predeces- 
sors. Up  to  that  time  Bernardo  Itosselhno,  the 
Florentine  architect,  had  been  given  the  supreme 
control  over  the  works,  but  he  was  glad  to  attach 
Albert!  to  him,  and  henceforward  nothing  was  done 
in  Rome  without  their  being  consulted.  Alberti  was 
created  a  prelate,  and  invested  with  benefices  which 
made  him  independent,  and  in  14-17  he  received  the 
dignity  of  canon  and  the  title  of  prelate  of  Borgo  San 
Lorenzo  and  of  San  Martino  at  Gangalandi.  Pius  II. 
retained  him  at  the  Vatican,  and  made  him  Secretary 
of  the  Apostolic  Letters. 

It  was  during  this  period,  with  the  monuments  of 
antiquity  before  his  eyes,  and  in  the  companionship 
of  Biondo  da  Forli,  the  author  of ''Roma  Instaurata," 
and  the  real  creator  of  archseology,  that  it  occurred 
to  him  that  there  Avas  no  reason  why  the  classic  forms 
should  not  be  combined  with  those  imposed  by  mod- 


208  FLOEENCE. 

crn  necessities.  Alberti  was  thoroughly  engrossed  in 
this  new  architectural  departure  when  Sigismund 
Malatesta  asked  him  to  come  to  Rimini^  and  confer 
with  him  as  to  the  building  of  a  temple.  He  accepted 
the  invitation  with  the  assent  of  the  Pope,  who  was 
indebted  to  Malatesta  for  the  Avay  in  which  he  had  led 
the  pontifical  troops  to  victory;  but,  as  he  coidd  not 
remain  long,  he  left  as  proto  maestrOj  or  overseer, 
Matteo  da  Pasti,  of  Verona,  who  was  a  pensioner  of 
Malatesta,  and  to  whom  we  owe  the  excellent  medal- 
lions of  Sigismund  and  Isotta.  This  shows  how  varied 
were  the  gifts  of  most  great  artists  during  the  fifteenth 
century.  There  is  nothing  to  shoAv  that  Alberti  re- 
turned to  Rimini  after  the  inauguration  of  the  Tem- 
ple in  1450,  but  he  had  made  himself  a  very  great 
favorite  with  Sigismund,  who  desired  that  his  medal- 
lion should  be  placed  opposite  to  his  own  above  his 
tomb. 

The  greatest  works  of  Alberti,  those  which  have 
insured  his  celebrity,  were  executed  after  his  first 
visit  to  Rome.  To  begin  with,  he  built  St.  Pancras 
for  Cosimo  RuceUai,  and  he  then  designed  the  beau- 
tifid  facade  of  Santa  Maria  Novella.  In  conjunction 
with  Brunelleschi,  who  had  been  commissioned  to 
build  the  Foundling  Hospital  in  the  Piazza  delP  An- 
nunziata,  he  decorated  the  interior  of  the  church  of 
that  name,  preparing  the  designs  for  the  tribune,  the 
chapel,  and  the  cupolas.  It  was  during  this  period 
that  he  made  his  longest  stay  at  Florence,  living  in 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  209 

the  intimacy  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  and  making  one 
in  those  celebrated  gatherings  in  the  Camaldoli  Avoods 
with  Ficino,  Acciaiuoli,  and  Rinuccini.  In  addition 
to  Malatesta,  Riicellai,  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici ;  Louis 
Gonzaga  Marquis  of  Mantua,  furnished  Albertl  with 
an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  views  in  regard 
to  architecture,  intrusting  to  him  the  erection  in 
that  city  of  a  basilica  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew, 
where  repose  the  remains  of  Andrea  jVIantegna.  Al- 
bertl availed  himself  of  it,  and  St.  Andrew's,  like  the 
Temple  of  Rimini,  offers  one  of  the  earliest  instances 
of  the  revival  of  classic  architecture. 

The  princes  of  the  houses  of  Este,  Montefeltro, 
Gonzaga,  Malatesta,  and  Medici,  whose  cause  his 
family  had  espoused  with  great  ardor,  were  all  anx- 
ious to  attach  him  to  their  service,  but  Nicholas  V., 
Pius  II.,  and  Slxtus  IV.  almost  monopolized  him, 
more  particularly  the  first-named  pontiff,  whose  aim 
it  was  to  change  the  face  of  Rome.  He  had  requested 
him  to  erect  fountains,  squares,  and  oratories,  and  he 
was  also  anxious  to  roof  in  the  bridire  of  St.  Anc^elo 
so  as  to  make  a  covered  way  to  the  Mole  of  Hadrian. 
It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  understand  that  Florence, 
many  as  were  the  attractions  she  offered  him  after  so 
long  an  absence,  failed  to  retain  him,  and  he  settled 
definitely  at  Rome,  where  he  died  In  the  spring  of 
1472,  as  is  proved  by  the  remark  of  Matteo  Palmlerl, 
Apostolic  Secretary  to  Slxtus  lY.,  in  his  book  ^*  Do 
Tcmporibus  suls."  His  ashes,  which  were  tempora- 
ls 


210  FLORENCE. 

rily  deposited  in  the  cliurch  from  which  he  took  his 
ecclesiastical  title,  were  transferred  to  Florence  and 
placed  in  the  family  tomb. 

Alberti  had  obtained  an  mirivalled  position  in  his 
own  line,  his  social  rank  helping  in  some  measure  to 
establish  his  fame.  Moreover,  all  hmnanists  occu- 
pied a  higher  place  in  the  intellectual  hierarchy  than 
the  ordinary  artist,  who  was  looked  upon  as  a  supe- 
rior kind  of  mechanic.  The  whole  history  of  Alberti 
may  be  gleaned  from  the  various  works  which  he  has 
left  behind  him.  In  his  ^^  Trattato  della  Famiglia" 
he  speaks  with  pride  of  his  ancient  lineage,  and  Ma- 
chiavelli  represents  the  Alberti  as  being  ''  more  like 
princes  than  private  individuals. '^  The  hatred  of  the 
Albizzi  seems  to  have  knoAvn  no  abatement,  and  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  his  life  Leo  Battista  never 
went  abroad  without  an  escort  of  armed  men  lent  him 
by  Cardinal  Alberti. 

As  an  artist  his  conceptions  were  grandiose  and 
noble,  but  in  the  details  of  ornamentation  his  style  is 
rather  hard,  and  in  endeavoring  to  reproduce  Attic 
elegance  he  occasionally  mistakes  meagreness  for 
grace.  His  favorite  motive  in  ornamentation  was 
the  palm  copied  from  ancient  tablets. 

As  a  writer  he  was  very  erudite  and  capable  of 
great  eloquence,  notably  in  the  passage  upon  the 
tombs  in  his  "  De  re  jEdificatoria,''  Avhile  in  his  pri- 
vate correspondence  his  predominant  characteristic 
was  affable  simplicity.     Angelo  Politian  pronounced 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  211 

his  funeral  oration,  and  Cristof(n'o  Landino  passed  a 
glowing  eulogium  upon  him  in  his  ^^  Commentary  on 
Dante." 

The  features  of  Alberti  are  preserved  to  us  first  in 
the  medallion  bj  Matteo  da  Pasti,  which  has  on  the 
reverse  a  winged  eye  with  the  motto  Quid  tinUj  sur- 
rounded by  a  laurel  wreath,  and  by  the  beautiful 
plaquette  in  the  Dreyfus  Collection.  A  replica  of 
this  })laquette,  which  was  in  the  collection  of  the  late 
M.  His  de  la  Salle,  is  in  the  Italian  Renaissance  sculp- 
ture-room at  tlie  Louvre,  but  it  does  not  bear  the 
initials  of  Leo  Battista,  though  the  most  competent 
judges  have  been  of  opinion  that  it  is  his  own  handi- 
Avork. 

The  church  of  San  Francesco  da  Rimini  contains  a 
third  likeness  of  him,  but  this  is  only  an  enlarged  re- 
production of  Matteo's  medalhon. 

MARCILIO  FICINO. 

(1433-U99.) 

Marcilio  Ficino  was  the  son  of  a  skilful  surgeon  at- 
tached to  the  ^[cdici  family,  who,  though  a  native  of 
Florence,  had  sent  his  son  to  the  University  of 
Bologna,  because  medical  studies  were  much  more 
advanced  there  than  in  any  other  city  of  the  penin- 
sula. 3Iarcilio  occasionally  came  to  see  his  father  in 
the  Medici  Palace,  and  having  on  one  occasion  been 
presented  to  Cosimo  the  Elder,  he  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  make  a  favorable  impression  by  his  modest 


212  FLORENCE. 

demeanor  and  precocious  erudition.  Instead  of  de- 
voting himself  specially  to  the  study  of  medicine, 
like  his  father^  Marcilio  developed  a  great  fondness 
for  philosophy,  and  learnt  by  heart  all  the  principal 
authors.  Cosimo,  who  was  much  pleased  to  find  in 
him  a  disciple  of  the  philosophy  to  which  he  himself 
was  so  warmly  attached,  kept  him  at  Florence,  gave 
him  a  lodging  in  the  palace,  facilitated  the  continu- 
ance of  his  study,  and  got  his  father  to  consent  to  his 
change  of  profession.  In  1456,  when  only  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  he  published  ""  The  Platonician 
Institutions,"  and  Cosimo  and  Cristoforo  Landino, 
both  very  competent  judges,  admired  the  work,  but 
exhorted  the  writer  not  to  read  Plato  in  the  Latin  or 
the  vulgar  tongue,  but  to  study  Greek  profoundly 
enough  to  be  able  to  considt  the  original.  The  re- 
sults of  this  study  were  the  translation  of  '^  The  Ori- 
gin of  the  World,"  attributed  to  Mercurius  Trisme- 
gistus,  and  the  ""  Choral  Hymns."  We  know  from 
Tiraboschi,  and  also  from  the  private  letters  of  Co- 
simo, that  ]\Iarcilio  sang  the  hymns,  accompanying 
himself  on  the  lyre.  Cosimo  soon  became  so  attached 
to  his  society  that  he  gave  him  a  small  property  near 
Careggi,  a  town  house,  and  a  small  collection  of 
Greek  manuscripts  beautifully  ornamented  with  minia- 
tures like  those  in  the  Laurentiana. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  Cosimo  was  meditating 
the  formation  of  the  Platonian  Academy,  referred  to 
in  the  chapter  devoted  to  the  Father  of  his  Country, 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOKENTINES.  213 

and  Marciiio,  as  has  been  said,  was  selected  by  him 
to  organize  this  assembly,  which  met  beneath  the 
trees  of  Cosimo's  garden  at  Careggi. 

Piero  de'  Medici,  at  the  death  of  Cosimo,  showed 
him  great  favor,  causing  his  manuscripts  to  be  copied, 
advocating  his  views  with  great  warmth,  and  arous- 
ing general  enthusiasm  both  for  himself  and  his  pro- 
tege, by  insisting  upon  his  expounding  his  doctrines 
from  the  pulpit.  It  was  from  Florence,  as  is  pointed 
out  in  the  chapter  on  the  Renaissance,  that  the  study 
of  Plato  and  the  observance  of  his  doctrines  were 
spread  throughout  the  whole  of  Italy,  and  even  of 
Europe,  and  the  initial  credit  of  this  is  due  to  Marcilio 
Ficino,  who  was  nominated  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent to  a  canonry  in  the  cathedral  of  Florence,  and 
to  two  rich  benefices.  This  gave  a  fresh  direction 
to  his  studies,  and  he  turned  his  attention  to  theology, 
his  familiarity  with  Plato  enabling  him  in  his  sermons 
to  draw  from  the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosopher 
arguments  in  favor  of  the  divinity.  In  this  connec- 
tion his  doctrines  were  not  much  else  than  heathen 
as  he  drew  a  comparison  between  Socrates  and  Christ, 
and  found  an  explanation  for  all  the  mysteries  of  the 
Catholic  Faith  in  the  works  of  Plato.  His  sermons 
soon  became  famous,  but  they  appealed  more  to  the 
intellect  than  to  the  heart,  and  were  not,  therefore, 
much  appreciated  by  the  common  people. 

]\Iarcilio  Ficino's  private  character  Avas  without 
blemish  ;  he  was  affable,  simple-minded,  and  gener- 


214  FLORENCE. 

ous,  the  few  intimate  friends  in  whose  society  he 
spent  most  of  his  time  being  passionately  devoted  to 
him,  while  the  letters  of  Lorenzo  to  him  breathe  a 
spirit  of  enthusiastic  attachment.  He  had,  however, 
his  moments  of  aberration,  and  it  may  be  that  towards 
the  close  of  his  life  the  constant  study  of  the  Platonic 
philosophy  had  in  some  measure  aifected  his  intellect. 
Thus,  for  instance,  he  Avas  a  fervent  believer  in  the 
supernatural,  and  according  to  an  anecdote  quoted  by 
Tiraboschi  and  his  other  biographers,  believed  in  the 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis.  Arguing  one  day  with 
his  disciple,  Mercati,  as  to  the  immortality  of  the  soid, 
it  Avas  agreed  that  whichever  of  the  two  died  first 
should  come  and  warn  the  other,  and  Mercati  after- 
wards declared  that  on  the  day  of  Ficino's  death  a 
phantom  horseman  stopped  at  his  door  and  exclaimed, 
"  Michael,  Michael,  what  I  told  you  is  true." 

The  reputation  of  Marcilio  Ficino  extended  as  far 
as  Hungary,  and  the  learned  Matthias  Corvinus 
pressed  him  to  come  to  his  Court,  while  Sixtus  IV. 
WTote  him  an  autograph  letter,  offering  him  a  pension 
and  a  residence  at  the  Vatican  ;  but  nothing  would 
induce  him  to  leave  Careggi,  Avhere,  for  the  matter 
of  that,  he  was  very  well  off. 

The  works  of  Marcilio  are  very  numerous,  but 
though  they  began  to  be  published  separately  at 
Florence  in  1489,  the  first  complete  edition  is  dated 
Venice,  1516,  and  that  was  put  through  the  press 
four  times.     The   nomenclature   of  all  these   works 


The  So-called  ''Bella  Simonetta/' 

Sandro  Botticelli, 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  215 

would  be  very  dry,  and  tliose  who  may  care  for  full 
particulars  may  bo  referred  to  Tirabosclii  and  other 
specialist  writers. 

BERNARDO  PULCL 
(1420-1491.) 

Pulci  descends  from  a  family  of  poets,  and  Ber- 
nardo, the  eldest,  was  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the 
Court  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  endearing  himself 
to  the  Medici  by  composing  sonnets  for  them  like  a 
poet  laureate.  His  first  elegy  upon  the  death  of 
Cosimo  the  Elder  won  him  the  favor  of  Piero  il  Got- 
toso,  and  at  the  death  of  Simonetta,  the  beautiful 
mistress  of  Giuliano,  whose  portrait  has  been  pre- 
served to  us  by  Sandro  Botticelli,  he  wrote  another 
elegy  which  would  give  a  high  idea  of  the  deceased 
lady's  qualities  did  we  not  know  how  ready  Court 
poets  always  are  to  say  complimentary  things. 

Pulci  translated  into  Italian  verse  Virgil's  Bucolics, 
and  he  has  been  credited  with  the  poem  ^^  Morgante," 
which,  however,  was  in  reality  written  by  his  brother 
Luigi.  This  work  does  not  give  a  very  favorable 
idea  of  the  prevailing  morality;  but  it  was  read  aloud 
at  the  literary  gatherings,  which  resembled  those  at 
Careggi,  and  at  which  the  pious  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni, 
wife  of  Piero,  presided.  It  is,  however,  written  in 
very  chaste  language,  is  full  of  interesting  descrip- 
tions, and,  with  its  vivid  and  dashing  style  can- 
not well  fail  to  please.     Bernardo  Pulci  had  a  wife, 


216  FLOEENCE. 

Antonia^  who  wrote  several  dramatic  pieces  of  the 
passion-play  style,  and  the  poet  himself,  at  the  close 
of  his  life,  was  curator  of  the  Academy  of  Pisa,  his 
connection  with  the  history  of  literatm-e  not  being 
traceable  subsequent  to  1494. 

Besides  Luigi,  there  Avas  a  younger  brother  named 
Luca,  who  lived  at  the  Court  of  Lorenzo,  and  who 
has  celebrated  the  great  tournament  of  1468,  which 
is  the  only  guide  we  have  to  the  character  of  these 
splendid  entertainments.  He  has  left  several  other 
Avorks,  including  the  ^^  Giriifo,"  a  tale  of  chivalry,  and 
"  II  Driade  d'  Amor,"  a  pastoral  poem  in  four  cantos. 

Bernardo  was  the  most  famous  of  the  three  brothers 
at  the  time,  but  Luigi,  as  the  author  of  '^  Morgante," 
has  achieved  the  most  enduring  fame. 

DOMEXICO  BURCHIELLO. 

(139..-144S.) 

Burchiello's  name  is  often  quoted  by  persons  who 
have  never  read  any  of  his  poems.  He  was  a  barber 
by  trade,  and  was  doubtless  one  of  those  Avho  helped 
to  found  the  Barbers'  Salon  in  Italy,  a  sort  of  club 
open  to  all  the  world,  in  Avhich  the  latest  news  and 
gossip  are  retailed.  A  foreigner  visiting  Italy  for 
the  first  time  will  be  struck  by  the  countless  number 
of  hairdressers'  shops  in  which  the  modern  Burchiello 
is  awaiting  his  customers,  and  in  the  evening  people 
meet  there  and  converse,  seated  upon  large  sofas 
which  are  placed  round  the  room. 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  217 

Burchiello,  a  barber  and  tlie  son  of  a  barber,  had 
his  shop,  m  tlie  first  years  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
in  tlie  CaUmara  quarter,  near  the  old  market.  He 
Avas  so  ready-witted  and  gay  that  his  name  became 
as  synonymous  for  good-humor  and  quickness  of 
repartee  as  that  of  Figaro  did  three  hundred  years 
hiter.  Courtiers  and  townspeople  repaired  to  his 
shop,  and  in  the  IMedici  Gallery  may  be  seen  a  pict- 
ure representing  the  establishment  divided  into  two 
portions,  in  one  of  which  customers  Avere  shaved, 
while  the  other  was  reserved  for  the  regular  fre- 
quenters, who  chatted,  or  played,  or  recited  verses 
when  Burchiello's  tongue  was  not  going. 

He  wrote  sonnets  which  passed  through  eight  edi- 
tions in  various  countries  before  the  fifteenth  century 
was  over,  though  they  are  so  fantastic  and  incompre- 
hensible that  it  is  difficult  to  understand  what  they 
mean  :  for  all  the  learned  commentaries  of  Yarchi 
and  Dona,  Dandolo  has  no  hesitation  in  pronounc- 
ing these  sonnets  to  be  unintelligible  to  those  Avho  do 
not  understand  the  fishwife's  vocabulary.  The  only 
thing  to  commend  about  them  is  that  they  are  A'iva- 
cious,  and  full  of  that  iire  which  pleases  the  common 
people. 

SAVONAROLA. 
(1J52-1498.) 

Fra  Girolamo  Savonarola,  monk  of  the  Dominican 
order,  was  born  at  Ferrai'a  on  the  21st  of  September, 
1452,  and,  though  not  properly  speaking  a  Floren- 


218  FLOEENCE. 

tine,  lie  belongs  to  the  history  of  that  city,  so  promi- 
nent a  part  did  he  play  in  the  politics  and  intellectual 
movement  of  his  day.  Witli  the  ardor  of  a  Peter  the 
Hermit  and  the  miabated  fanaticism  of  a  tribmie  of 
the  people,  which  cost  him  his  life,  he  sought  to 
weaken  the  influence  of  the  Medici,  and  to  maintain 
the  Republican  form  of  Government  in  Florence. 
He  did  not  scruple  to  call  upon  the  Pope  to  suppress 
abuses,  and  even  endeavored  to  put  a  check  upon 
his  temporal  power,  and,  like  the  austere  reformer 
that  he  was,  set  his  face  against  the  prevailing  ideas 
in  regard  to  art  and  literature,  considering  them  to 
be  infected  with  paganism,  and  denouncing  them 
from  the  pulpit  on  this  ground.  His  eloquence,  his 
enthusiasm,  and  his  fire,  his  sombre  genius,  his  bound- 
less courage,  and  the  matchless  audacity  and  coolness 
which  denoted  an  immovable  conviction,  made  him 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  in  the  history  of 
Florence  during  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
the  flames  which  consumed  his  body  have  formed  a 
halo  of  martyrdom  around  his  head,  though  there  were 
those  Avho  professed  to  regard  him  as  an  impostor. 

His  father's  name  was  Mccolo,  and  his  mother  was 
Elena  Buonaccorsi,  the  family  being  of  Mantuan 
origin.  Austere  and  serious  as  a  child,  there  seemed 
to  be  something  in  him  which  foretold  a  stormy 
career.  His  earliest  studies  were  theology  and  philos- 
ophv,  and  his  favorite  author  was  St.  Thomas  Aquinas, 
though  he  wrote  a  few  poems  in  liis  youth  which  are 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLOKEXTINES.  219 

still  extant.  He  liad  his  first  vision  at  the  age  of 
t\vo-and-twentyj  Avhen  it  seemed  to  him^  one  night, 
that  a  cold  rain  had  penetrated  to  his  very  bones, 
and  annihilated  all  the  fermentation  of  youth,  and 
allayed  for  ever  the  longings  of  the  flesh.  After  this 
vision  he  went  off  to  Bologna,  without  communicating 
his  intentions  to  any  one,  and  assumed  the  robe  of 
a  Dominican.  He  soon  manifested  his  great  gifts, 
and  his  superiors  gave  him  the  chairs  of  dialectics 
and  metaphysics.  He  remained  for  seven  years  in 
Bologna,  going  from  thence  to  Florence,  where  he  at 
once  took  up  his  residence  at  San  Marco,  and  made 
his  debut  as  a  preacher  in  San  Lorenzo  during  Lent. 
He  failed,  however,  to  make  any  impression  upon  the 
Florentines,  who  were  formed  in  the  school  of  Boc- 
caccio and  Marsuppini,  and  finding  this  to  be  the  case, 
he  resolved  to  confine  himself  in  future  to  expound- 
ing Holy  Writ.  Having  been  sent  by  his  superiors 
to  preach  in  Lombardy,  he  returned  to  Florence  at 
the  request  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  to  whom 
Pico  della  Mirandola  had  described  him  as  being  a 
man  of  great  promise,  well  versed  in  Holy  Writ,  and 
deserving  of  the  highest  interest. 

Li  1490  he  commenced,  in  the  church  of  San 
Marco,  a  series  of  lectures  upon  the  Apocalypse,  and 
basing  his  arguments  upon  the  obscurity  of  this  book, 
he  declared  that  it  foretold  the  immediate  ruin  of 
Florence,  unless  she  reformed  her  ways.  He  called 
upon  the  Church  to  regenerate  herself,  and  upon  her 


220  FLORENCE. 

clergy  to  give  up  the  licentious  life  whicli  so  many 
of  them  led,  threatening  them  with  the  Divine  ven- 
geance in  the  sentence  engraved  on  the  medallion : 
'^  Gladius  Domini  super  Terram,  Ceto  et  Velociter." 
His  preaching  created  a  feeling  of  terror  throughout 
FlorencCj  but  his  threats  of  chastisement  seemed  to 
fascinate  the  people,  and  as  St.  Mark's  was  too  small 
for  the  congregations  which  pressed  to  hear  him,  he 
preached  the  following  year  in  the  Duomo.  For 
eight  years  he  had  the  Avhole  city  at  his  feet,  and 
when  he  came  down  from  the  pulpit  on  his  w^ay  back 
to  the  monastery  of  St.  Mark  he  had  to  be  protected 
from  the  enthusiastic  demonstrations  of  the  ardent 
and  impressionable  crowd. 

It  is  difficult  at  this  distance  of  time  to  form  an 
idea  of  what  his  eloquence  was  like,  but  it  apparently 
was  marked  rather  by  energy  and  natural  inspiration 
than  by  elevation  of  ideas  and  finish.  As  he  Avent 
straight  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  there  must  have 
been  a  tinge  of  vulgarity  which  touched  the  instinct 
of  the  masses,  and  a  certain  tone  of  tenderness  which 
had  its  effect  upon  the  strongest,  for  upon  one  occa- 
sion the  whole  congregation  burst  into  sobs,  beating 
their  breasts  and  manifesting  their  contrition  in  other 
w\iys.  Savonarola  was  an  extemporary  preacher, 
but  one  of  the  congregation  took  down  his  sermons, 
and  manuscript  copies  of  them  were  widely  circulated 
until  the  art  of  printing  enabled  them  to  be  repro- 
duced with  a  wealth  of  illustration. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  221 

In  July,  1491,  he  became  prior  of  St.  Mark's.  It 
was  a  custom  in  the  convent  that  on  the  election  of  a 
new  prior  he  should  go  and  do  homage  to  the  civil 
authority.  As  Lorenzo  dc'  Medici  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Pico  della  Mirandola,  who  was  the  sworn 
ally  of  Savonarola,  it  might  be  supposed  that  tlic  lat- 
ter would  have  conformed  to  the  general  usage  ;  but 
instead  of  doing  so  he  denounced  the  tyranny  of  Lo- 
renzo, and  accused  him  of  undermining  the  liberties 
of  the  people.  Lorenzo  had  on  a  previous  occasion 
sent  him  a  delegation  composed  of  live  or  six  citizens, 
begging  him  not  to  excite  still  more  a  people  which 
had  always  been  the  sport  of  its  own  passions ;  but 
his  answer  to  this  was  a  fresh  tirade,  in  which  he  an- 
nounced the  early  death  of  the  chief  of  the  State. 
The  fulfilment  of  this,  as  of  some  of  his  other  predic- 
tions, gave  additional  force  to  his  fervid  declamations 
and  mystic  utterances.  In  the  life  of  Lorenzo  the  de- 
tails of  Savonarola's  visit  to  him  on  his  death-bed  arc 
given  in  full,  and  need  not,  therefore,  be  repeated 
here. 

With  all  his  fanaticism  Savonarola  was  a  true  pa- 
triot, and  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  proved  his 
devotion  to  Florence.  When  Charles  VIII.  was  ad- 
vancing on  the  city  the  Dominican  monk  went  forth 
to  meet  him,  and  adjured  him  so  vehemently  in  the 
name  of  God  that  the  king  was  induced  to  adopt  a 
more  conciliatory  policy.  The  speech  which  Savo- 
narola made  is  included  in  his  ''  Revelazioni.''     It  is 


222  FLORENCE. 

true  that  Charles  and  his  army  were  only  gotten  rid 
of  through  the  fearless  bearing  of  Piero  Capponi  corn- 
Lined  with  Savonarola's  influence  and  the  payment 
by  the  Republic  of  a  large  sum  of  money. 

Savonarola  was  at  one  time  very  nearly  being  suc- 
cessfid  in  his  struggle  against  the  Medici,  for  when 
Piero,  the  son  of  Lorenzo,  had  been  exiled,  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  Signoria  the  new  form  of  government 
which,  according  to  his  views,  would  insure  the  su- 
premacy of  the  people.  It  Avas  at  his  instance  that 
the  first  popular  parliament  was  convoked  in  the 
Palazzo  Vecchio,  but,  as  I  have  shown  in  a  previous 
chapter,  it  did  not  last  long. 

The  political  purpose  which  he  Avas  pursuing  did 
not  cause  him  to  slacken  his  crusade  against  the 
Papacy.  His  constant  theme  was  simony,  the  disso- 
lute conduct  of  the  clergy,  the  scandalous  habits  of 
the  prelates,  the  cardinals,  and  the  Pope  himself,  and 
the  general  looseness  of  ecclesiastical  morals  and  dis- 
cipline. The  occupant  of  the  Papal  throne  at  that 
time  was  the  infamous  Alexander  VI.,  the  father  of 
Csesar  Borgia,  of  the  Duke  of  Candia,  who  was  mur- 
dered by  his  own  brother,  and  of  Lucrezia  Borgia ; 
and  as  he  felt  these  accusations  to  be  true,  and  dreaded 
their  effect  when  launched  from  the  second  city  in 
Italy,  he  summoned  the  Dominican  monk  to  Rome  in 
order  to  reprimand  him  for  his  doctrines.  Savonarola 
was  able  to  excuse  himself  on  the  ground  of  ill-health 
from  coming  to  Rome,  and  was  as  a  matter  of  fact 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  223 

obliged  to  renounce  preaching  and  work  of  all  kinds, 
and  remain  for  some  time  in  seclusion  at  San  ^Marco. 

But  his  silence  did  not  last  long,  and  when  he 
again  ascended  the  pulpit  he  spoke  with  even  greater 
vehemence  against  the  Pope,  writing  to  all  the  sov- 
ereigns of  Europe,  and  asking  them  to  convoke  a 
General  Council  for  the  deposition  of  the  Pontiff,  as 
guilty  of  crimes  which  he  undertook  to  prove. 

Alexander  VI.  offered  him  a  cardinal's  hat  on  con- 
dition that  he  would  change  the  tenor  of  his  dis- 
courses. Savonarola,  however,  treated  the  proposal 
with  scorn,  and  made  it  the  subject  of  a  sermon  in 
order  to  prove  the  charges  of  venality  in  connection 
Avith  ecclesiastical  offices  Avhich  he  had  been  preferring 
against  the  Court  of  Rome. 

The  city,  however,  was  divided  into  two  camps, 
upon  the  one  side  being  the  adherents  of  the  Medici, 
who  were  the  natural  enemies  of  Savonarola,  and  who 
were  styled  the  Arrahinii,  while  on  the  other  were 
his  partisans,  known  as  the  Viagnoni,  The  most 
fanatical  of  the  latter  Avere  Fra  Domenico  da  Pescia 
and  Fra  Silvestro  jMaruffi,  the  first  named  (if  wliom 
succeeded  Savonarola  in  the  pulpit  about  149(3,  and 
commenced  a  crusade  against  all  kinds  of  profane 
objects,  such  as  books,  statuary,  drawings,  paintings, 
miniatures,  jewelry,  dress,  musical  instruments,  and 
perfumes.  The  people  of  Florence  Avere  possessed 
of  a  frenzy,  and  condemned  to  the  flames  evervthing 
which  was  susceptible  of  exciting  Avorldly  thoughts, 


224  FLOEENCE. 

or  which  was  used  for  the  adornment  of  the  person. 
There  Avas  a  wild  outburst  of  fanaticism^  and^  Avith  a 
blind  fury  reminding  us  of  the  Iconoclasts,  priceless 
works  of  art  were  destroyed  in  that  year,  when  for 
the  first  time  the  tolerance  for  which  Italy  had  always 
been  conspicuous  was  forgotten.  It  is  strange  to  note 
that  in  the  fifteenth  century,  under  the  rule  of  the 
Medici,  books  and  works  of  art  should  have  been  con- 
signed to  the  flames. 

In  Italy  the  Renaissance  had  never  been  in  actual 
opposition  to  Christianity,  for  the  revelation  of  the 
antique  world  to  modern  society  did  not  come  into 
collision  witli  the  great  tradition  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, which  had  constituted  the  strength  of  Italy. 
It  was  possible  to  venerate  Plato,  and  even  to  keep  a 
lamp  burning  before  his  bust  as  before  an  altar,  Avith- 
out  undermining  the  Catholic  faith,  as  is  proved  by 
the  many  pious  foundations  of  the  day,  and  by  the 
great  liberality  of  the  Avealthy  in  employing  the  most 
famous  artists  to  build  churches  and  chapels. 

A  band  of  children  Avas  at  tliis  time  formed  by  Fra 
Domenico,  and  dressed  in  A\'hite,  the  emblem  of  purity, 
they  Avent  round  to  the  A\"irious  houses  and  collected 
the  objects  Avhich  Avere  anathema.  This  lasted 
throughout  the  carniA^al,  and  on  ShroA^e  Tuesday  they 
Avere  made  into  a  gigantic  bonfire  on  the  Piazza  della 
Signoria,  Fra  Domenico  assembling  the  children  in 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  Avhere  he  celebrated  mass,  and 
going  Avith  them  from  thence  to  San  Marco,  the  boys 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  225 

carrying  red  crosses  in  their  hands,  and  wearing 
wreaths  of  olive-branches.  In  the  flames  which  arose 
from  the  Piazza  were  consumed  manuscripts  of 
Boccaccio  and  Petrarch,  priceless  works  of  sculpture 
and  of  painting,  and  specimens  of  the  goldsmith's  craft, 
never  so  perfect  as  at  Florence  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

Burlamachi  says  that  in  1498  the  enthusiasm  was 
so  great  that  the  ceremony  had  to  be  repeated,  and 
that  the  procession  of  neophytes  was  headed  by  Savo- 
narola himself,  crucifix  in  hand.  Burlamachi  adds 
that,  ""  Having  reached  the  Piazza,  they  found  the 
bonfire  larger  than  before,  among  the  articles  in  the 
holocaust  being  antique  female  busts  of  great  beauty 
— busts  of  the  beautiful  Bencina,  Lena  Morella,  Bina, 
]\Iaria  do  Lenzi,  by  the  greatest  scidptors.  There 
w^as  a  bust  of  Petrarch,  adorned  wdth  gold  and  minia- 
tures, which  was  worth  fifty  gold  crowns,  and  a  watch 
was  kept  over  the  bonfire  to  see  that  nothing  was  re- 
moved. When  the  procession  arrived  it  drew  up  in 
a  circle  around  the  pyramid,  which  was  sprinkled 
with  holy  water,  amid  the  singing  of  hymns.  Then 
came  the  captains  of  districts,  who  set  fire  to  the  bon- 
fire to  the  sound  of  bells,  trumpets,  and  other  instru- 
ments of  nuisic,  and  amid  the  joyful  exclamations  of 
the  people,  who  chanted  the  '  Te  Deum.' " 

About  1407^^  The  Triumph  of  the  Cross  "  made 
its  appearance,  the  greatest  of  his  writings,  and  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  same  year  Savonarola  openly 
defied  the   Papal    excommunication.     A   Franciscan 

15 


226  FLORENCE. 

named  Francesco  da  Piiglia  was  at  the  head  of  the 
party  which  regarded  Savonarola  and  Fra  Domenico 
as  heretics,  and  as  the  latter  had  the  fanaticism  to  de- 
clare from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Mark  that  the  flames 
would  have  no  hold  on  him  or  his  master,  the  Fran- 
ciscan took  up  the  challenge. 

A  whole  host  of  priests,  women  and  children  were 
so  convinced  that  the  fire  would  not  burn  Savonarola 
or  his  disciple  that  they  were  ready  to  follow  them 
through  the  flames,  when,  on  the  7th  of  April,  1498, 
the  Aveird  experiment  was  tried  on  the  square  in  front 
of  the  Palazzo  Yecchio.  First  came  Fra  Francesco 
da  Puglia,  foUowed  by  the  monks  of  his  order,  with- 
out any  show  or  ornaments,  and  then  followed  Savo- 
narola himself,  and  the  Dominicans  in  fifll  ecclesiasti- 
cal dress,  and  carrying  the  Host. 

A  long  discussion  arose  as  to  whether  the  condi- 
tions were  equal — whether  the  Dominicans  ought  not 
to  wear  the  same  plain  robe  as  the  Franciscans,  and 
whether  the  Host  Avhich  they  carried  with  them  might 
not  afford  them  miraculous  protection.  While  the 
argument  was  being  carried  on  heavy  rain  fell  and 
extinguished  the  flames ;  and  this  incident,  which 
made  the  people  suspect  that  they  had  been  duped 
by  two  impostors,  so  discredited  Savonarola  that  on 
the  following  Sunday  the  Arrabbiatij  under  the  frivo- 
lous pretext  of  a  disturbance  which  had  occurred  in 
another  part  of  the  city,  attacked  the  convent  of  St. 
Mark,  took  it  by  assault,  and  dragged  Savonarola  and 


Cloister  of  Monastery  of  S.  Marco, 


ILLUSTPvIOUS  FLORENTINES.  227 

his  two  followers — Fra  Domenico  and  Fra  Silvestro 
— to  prison. 

When  once  Savonarola  was  arrested  there  was  no 
lack  of  accusations  against  liim.  lie  had  already 
been  excommunicated^  and  he  was  now  charged  with 
having  preached  without  having  the  Divine  revela- 
tion, and  of  having  attempted  to  assemble  a  council 
for  the  reform  of  the  Church  without  the  authority 
of  the  Pope.  The  General  of  the  Dominican  order 
himself,  Giovacchino  Turriano,  of  Venice,  and  Mon- 
signor  Francesco  Ramolino,  afterwards  ]3ishop  of 
Sorrento,  were  commissioned  to  represent  the  Pontiff 
before  the  tribunal,  which  was  composed  of  priests 
and  monks.  The  result  of  the  trial  Avas  a  foregone 
conclusion,  and  Savonarola  and  his  two  associates 
were  sentenced  to  be  hanged  and  burnt  on  the  Piazza 
della  Signoria. 

The  execution  took  place  on  the  23d  of  ^lay,  1498, 
which  was  Ascension  Eve,  and  a  curious  picture  of 
the  sinister  ceremonial  is  still  extant.  A  tribune  more 
than  six  feet  high  had  been  erected  on  the  Piazza, 
where  the  Ammanati  fountain  had  not  yet  been  placed, 
in  front  of  the  ducal  palace,  and  it  was  from  there 
that  the  eight  magistrates  witnessed  the  execution. 
This  tribune  Avas  connected  with  the  stake  by  a  sort 
of  raised  platform  on  trestles,  and  the  condemned  men 
were  led  up  to  it,  and  had  the  insignia  of  their  order 
stripped  from  them  before  being  led  to  the  stake. 

After  being   hung  they  were  burnt   to  ashes,  and 


228  FLOKENCE. 

the  fact  that  they  had  not  uttered  a  word  of  repent- 
ance made  a  great  impression  upon  the  multitude. 
Savonarola  was  executed  last.  When  he  was  brought 
to  the  ladder  he  cast  a  long  gaze  at  the  crowd ;  and 
it  is  said  that  Avhen  his  body  was  cast  in  the  flames 
the  heat  caused  the  right  hand  to  move  so  that  it 
seemed  to  be  raised^  as  if  in  the  act  of  benediction. 

He  was  only  five-and-forty  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
and  he  soon  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  martyr,  even 
by  the  Church  ;  so  much  so,  that  when  ten  years  later 
Raphael  was  painting  the  Stance  at  the  Vatican,  he 
included  among  the  doctors  in  the  ^'  Dispute  on  the 
Sacrament "  the  man  Avhom  the  reigning  Pope's  pre- 
decessor had  caused  to  be  burnt  as  a  heretic.  At 
Florence  his  image  was  preserved  as  that  of  a  prophet 
and  a  saint,  and  in  most  pictures  he  is  represented 
with  the  halo  of  glory  around  his  head.  The  most 
trivial  articles  which  had  belonged  to  him  Avere  re- 
garded as  relics,  and  his  memory  is  so  venerated  that 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  more  than 
three  hundred  years  after  his  death,  people  came  on 
the  anniversary  of  his  execution  to  deposit  flowers  on 
the  spot  where  the  stake  had  been  erected. 

THE    CHARACTER    OF    SAVOXAROLA.       HIS    TENDENCIES.       HIS   IN- 
FLUENCE  UPON    LITERATURE   AND   ART.       THE   MEETINGS 
IN   THE   MONASTERY   OF   SAN   MARCO. 

Such  is  the  true  history  of  Savonarola,  and  it  only 
remains  to  consider  what  were  his  real  tendencies, 
and  what  was  the  end  he  had  in  view.     He  was  one 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  229 

of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  liis  time,  and  he  has 
left  an  indelible  impression  upon  the  monastery  of 
San  Marco,  Avhich,  though  now  deserted,  preserves 
its  air  of  monastic  repose,  and  which  is  associated 
with  the  name  of  another  famous  monk,  Fra  Angelico. 

While  living  in  the  seclusion  of  his  convent  the 
fame  of  his  sermons  brought  him  many  illustrious 
visitors,  and  he  received  them  in  his  humble  cell,  one 
of  the  first  being  Pico  della  Mirandola,  the  friend  of 
the  Medici,  who  entertained  a  high  feeling  of  admira- 
tion for  the  sturdy  monk.  Then  came  Benivieni ; 
Politian,  so  much  attached  to  the  antiquity  which 
Savonarola  held  in  abhorrence  ;  Marco  Finiguerra, 
the  engraver;  Bandini;  the  famous  Sandro  Botticelli; 
Lorenzo  di  Credi ;  and  two  of  the  Della  Robbia 
family  who  had  taken  holy  orders. 

The  f[ivorite  subject  Avith  Savonarola  was  the 
deleterious  influence  of  paganism,  which  he  ascribed 
to  the  study  of  the  ancient  authors.  His  idea  Avas 
to  extend  the  influence  of  religion  to  all  human  facul- 
ties and  to  all  their  outcome,  and  as  he  saw  paganism 
gradually  asserting  itself  in  every  branch  of  literature 
and  art,  he  commenced  an  ardent  crusade  against  it. 
The  study  of  the  Bible  was  his  dominant  passion,  and 
he  asserted  that  it  contained  everything  that  was 
necessary  for  the  development  of  humanity.  I  have 
said  above  that  in  his  earlier  commentaries  upon  the 
Apocalypse  he  predicted  in  vague  terms  the  French 
invasion  and  the  disasters  of  Italy,  and  when  this 


230  FLOKENCE. 

prediction  was  realized  the  enthusiasm  to  hear  him 
knew  no  bomids,  the  mountaineers  coming  down  from 
the  Apennines  and  sleeping  under  the  walls  of  the 
city,  so  as  to  be  sure  of  getting  places  to  hear  him 
the  next  day.  The  cloister  of  St.  Mark  being  too 
smallj  it  was  in  the  Duomo,  which  woidd  have  ac- 
commodated all  the  population  of  Florence,  that  he 
thundered  forth  against  the  lukewarm  {tie/idi),  and 
endeavored  to  inspire  them  with  his  own  ardent  faith. 
His  eloquence  was  not  without  its  effect,  for  there 
Avas  a  considerable  change  made  in  the  habits  of  the 
people,  and  a  reaction  set  in  against  the  simonies  and 
loose  discipline  of  the  clergy.  Savonarola  urged  that 
TibulluSj  Ovid,  Catullus,  and  all  the  philosophy  of 
Aristotle  should  be  proscribed,  and  he  reminded  the 
partisans  of  classic  study  of  the  schisms  which  had 
resulted  in  the  disruption  of  the  Empire  and  the  entry 
of  the  Turks  into  Constantinople.  His  action  was 
not  confined  to  literature,  for  in  politics  he  had  con- 
tributed to  the  convocation  of  the  first  Florentine 
parliament,  and  in  regard  to  domestic  reform  his  prin- 
cipal tenets  were,  like  those  of  J.  J.  Eousseau  three 
hundred  years  later,  the  advantages  of  a  natural  edu- 
cation, of  physical  and  moral  education  by  the  father 
and  the  mother,  and  of  mothers  nursing  their  infants 
themselves. 

In  regard  to  art,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was 
most  successful  in  introducing  a  new  order  of  things. 
Up  to  1480  most  of  the  subjects  treated  by  painters 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  231 

were  taken  from  antiquity  or  inspired  by  it,  and  we 
have  only  to  read  contemporary  works  or  examine 
pictures  and  statues  to  see  wliat  a  larii;e  place  is  held 
by  ancient  fable  and  the  mythology  of  (j  recce  and  of 
Rome.  Savonarola  reproached  the  IMedici  with  hav- 
ing encouraged  this  movement  and  favored  Natural- 
ism, Avliich  is  a  word  one  would  hardly  expect  to  find 
used  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Henceforward  we  find 
Filippo  Lippi,  Botticelli,  Pietro  della  Francesca,  and 
other  painters  representing  the  beautiful  women  of 
the  day  as  Madonnas  and  saints,  and  this  was  un- 
doubtedly due  in  some  measure  to  the  precepts  of 
Savonarola.  He  denounced  to  the  people  the  orgies 
of  sensualism  Avhich  Avere  depicted  in  the  frescoes, 
sculptures,  and  other  decorations  of  the  palaces,  pav- 
ing the  way  by  his  seven  years  of  preaching  for  the 
holocausts  in  which  so  many  matchless  works  of  art 
were  devoured. 

The  personal  influence  of  Savonarola  over  certain 
artists  has  been  demonstrated  by  historians  of  the 
time.  Sandro  Botticelli,  for  instance,  was  so  affected 
by  the  repeated  attacks  of  the  Dominican  monk  that 
he  abandoned  painting  for  a  time,  and  shut  himself 
up  in  a  monastery,  though  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  after- 
wards induced  him  to  return  to  his  art.  Lorenzo  di 
Credi,  orthodox  though  he  was  in  his  conceptions  and 
his  works,  was  as  deeply  affected  as  Botticelli,  and 
passed  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  the  convent  of 
Santa  Maria  Novella.     The  great  Fra  Bartolonnueo, 


232  FLOEENCE. 

who  combined  the  style  of  the  most  inspired  masters 
with  a  profound  faith,  did  not  toucli  a  brush  for  four 
years  after  tlie  execution  of  Savonarola.  Cronaca, 
the  chronicler  of  the  street  and  the  studio,  who  set 
more  store  by  his  fluent  pen  and  his  eloquence  than 
by  his  artistic  gifts,  could  not  sleep  after  he  had  heard 
several  sermons,  and  was  lost  in  admiration  for  the 
preacher.  Giovanni  della  Corniole,  a  great  cameo 
worker,  spent  a  long  time  upon  the  production  of  a 
splendid  portrait  of  Savonarola,  which  was  placed  in 
the  Medici  collection.  Even  Michael  Angelo,  austere 
and  proud  as  he  was,  felt  in  some  measure  the  great 
reformer's  influence,  for  though  he  was  only  a  child 
when  Savonarola  thundered  forth  his  denunciations 
of  the  modern  Babylon,  they  made  such  an  impres- 
sion upon  him  that  he  could  repeat  extracts  from 
them  years  afterwards. 

A  certain  school  regarded  Savonarola  as  an  icono- 
clast, an  accusation  of  which  Yillari  has  endeavored 
to  clear  him,  as  in  his  biography  of  the  Dominican 
monk  he  asserts  that  the  holocausts  which  I  have 
described  were  only  portraits  of  courtesans  and  books 
Avith  obscene  illustrations,  and,  to  prove  that  he  was 
not  an  enemy  of  letters,  points  out  that  he  asked  the 
Chapter  of  San  Marco  for  permission  to  purchase  the 
library  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  which  was  eventually 
known  as  the  Laurentiana.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Savon- 
arola, by  prohibiting  the  study  of  the  nude,  which  is 
the  ever-fresh  source  of  the  beautiful  in  art,  and  by 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  233 

maintaining  the  princi})lc  of  Christian  as  opposod  to 
pagan  art,  brouglit  about  a  complete  revohitir)n,  and 
put  an  end  to  tlie  strange  combats  of  Polhiinolo,  to 
the  compositions  taken  from  tlie  Latin  and  Greek 
authors,  to  the  strange  allegories  of  Botticelli  and 
Benozzo  Gozzoli,  and  to  the  beautiful  groups  of 
statuary  ■which  one  might  suppose  to  be  extracted 
from  the  quarries  of  Pares,  and  wrought  by  the 
pupils  of  Praxiteles. 

It  will  readily  be  understood  that  this  fanaticism, 
excellent  as  were  the  motives  which  gave  rise  to  it, 
called  forth  the  hostility  of  the  Court  of  Rome,  whose 
power  it  tended  to  undermine.  The  sack  of  San 
Marco  was  the  first  tangible  act  of  hostility  on  the 
part  of  the  Arrahhiati  against  the  Piagnoiii,  as  the  fol- 
lowers of  Savonarola  were  called,  and  that  must  have 
been  a  memorable  scene  when  the  Dominicans,  suc- 
cumbing under  superior  forces,  were  overwhelmed 
])y  their  assailants  in  the  church  which  was  red  with 
blood,  and  marched  to  their  doom  singing  and  prais- 
ing God.  One  cannot  visit  that  now  peaceful  retreat, 
which  the  recollection  of  Savonarola,  Fra  Domenico, 
and  Fra  Angelico  renders  so  famous,  without  being 
reminded  of  all  this  ;  and  the  cell  of  Savonarola,  in 
which  are  preserved  the  portraits  of  Cosimo  the  Elder, 
of  Benivieni,  and  of  Savonarola  himself,  the  manu- 
scripts, the  chair,  the  furniture,  and  the  sacerdotal 
ornaments  of  the  great  monk,  is  assuredly  one  of  the 
most  interesting  historical  spots  in  Florence.     In  it  we 


234  FLOKENCE. 

have,  so  to  speak,  the  records  of  history  proved  by 
facts,  but  for  Avhich  they  might  be  regarded  as  mere 
legends. 

From  this  time  forth  rehgious  subjects  were  invari- 
ably selected  for  painting  and  sculpture,  and  through- 
out Italy  artists  were  at  work  upon  portraits  of  Christ, 
the  Virgin,  the  angels  and  prophets,  and  upon  Bible 
scenes,  until  such  men  of  genius  as  Titian  and  Gior- 
gione  discarded  this  conventional  rule,  and  selected 
their  subjects  from  the  Greek  mythology  or  the 
domain  of  pure  fancy.  Nowhere  was  the  influence 
of  Savonarola  more  profoundly  felt  than  in  the  fine- 
arts,  as  his  utterances  had  made  a  deeper  impression 
upon  artists  than  upon  any  other  class. 

THE  BENIVIEXI. 

(1453-1542.) 

Jerome  Benivieni,  though  the  youngest,  was  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  family,  all  the  members  of 
which  were  admitted  to  the  intimacy  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent,  and,  as  members  of  his  Academy,  were 
the  friends  and  colleagues  of  Ficino,  Politian,  and  Pico 
della  Mirandola.  Domenico,  the  eldest  of  the  brothers, 
though  gifted  with  great  knowledge  as  a  philosopher, 
was  above  all  things  a  theologian,  so  much  so  that  he 
was  surnamed  ''  II  Scotino,"  or  the  little  Scot,  after 
the  gifted  Michael  Scotus  of  Great  Britain.  Professor 
of  Dialectics  in  the  University  of  Pisa,  and  after- 
wards Director  of  the  hospital  of  Pescia,  he  was  ap- 


Fra  Girolamo  Savonarola. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOEENTINES.  235 

pointed  by  Lorenzo  a  canon  of  the  basilica  of  San 
Lorenzo,  and  lie  always  remained  a  fast  friend  of 
Savonarola. 

Antony,  the  second  brother,  was  both  a  man  of 
letters  and  a  doctor,  as  was  often  the  case  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  notably  with  the 
brothers  Ficino.  He  has  left  some  technical  works 
behind  him,  including  a  curious  treatise  on  medicine, 
and  his  name  disappears  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

Jerome,  the  youngest  of  the  three  brothers,  was 
born  about  1453,  and  wrote  a  good  deal  of  poetry, 
belonging  to  the  Academy  of  Plato,  and  publishing 
verses  on  ^^  Platonic  Love  "  in  Italian.  An  intimate 
friend  of  all  the  most  gifted  men  of  his  time,  he  was 
the  inseparable  companion  of  Pico  della  Mirandola, 
who  showed  his  confidence  in  Jerome  by  making  him 
his  almoner  for  the  distribution  of  the  moneys  which 
he  gave  to  the  poor,  and  of  the  dowries  for  young  girls 
Avho  were  reported  to  be  worthy  of  this  favor. 

Pico  has  written  a  commentary  on  Jerome  Beni- 
vieni  as  a  preface  to  his  '^  Love  Sonnets,"  and  he  was 
so  attached  to  him  in  life  that  he  would  not  be  sepa- 
rated from  him  in  death,  and  Avas  buried  in  the  same 
tomb  at  San  Marco. 

Like  his  brother  Domenico,  he  was  a  firm  believer 
in  Savonarola,  and  besides  the  defence  which  he 
wrote  of  the  monk,  he  translated  his  works  from 
Latin  into  the  vulgar  tongue. 


236  FLOEENCR 


ANGELO   POLITIAN. 

(1454-1494.) 

Politian,  whose  name  is  synonymous  with  deep 
learning,  and  who  exercised  a  considerable  influence 
over  his  generation,  was  born  on  the  14th  of  July, 
1454,  at  Monte  Pulciano,  a  small  to^^m  in  Tuscany 
celebrated  for  its  excellent  Avine.  His  proper  name, 
as  would  appear  from  a  degree  of  doctor,  the  certifi- 
cate of  which  is  still  preserved  at  Florence,  was 
Ambrogini,  the  name  by  which  he  is  familiarly  known 
being  derived  from  his  place  of  birth. 

Cristoforo  Landino  taught  him  Latin,  and  Androni- 
cus,  of  Thessalonica,  Greek  ;  in  philosophy  he  Avas 
the  most  brilliant  of  Marcilio  Ficino's  pupils,  and  as 
he  was  anxious  to  master  the  doctrines  'of  Aristotle 
as  opposed  to  those  of  Plato,  he  studied  his  writings 
under  Argyropulos.  His  earliest  work  was  a  transla- 
tion of  Homer  into  Latin  verse  j  but  this  did  not 
bring  him  into  any  great  notice,  and  the  first  success 
which  he  obtained  was  by  writing  some  Stanze  for 
the  tournament  got  up  by  Giuliano  de'  Medici.  It  is 
scarcely  credible  that  he  should  have  written  these 
verses,  AA'hich  were  soon  on  everybody's  lips,  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  or  fifteen,  and  it  has  been  argued 
that  the  tournament  Avas  held  not  in  1468,  but  in 
1473. 

The  death  of  Giidiano  was  a  great  bloAv  for  Politian, 
who  wrote  in  Latin  an  accomit  of  the  Pazzi  conspir- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  237 

acy  ;  but  Lorenzo  intrusted  to  liim  the  education  of 
his  two  sons,  Pictro  and  Giovanni,  the  latter  of  Avhom 
became  Pope,  under  the  title  of  Leo  X. 

When  nine-and-twenty  years  of  age,  at  a  time 
when  Florence  was  a  centre  of  study  for  all  Italy, 
Pohtian  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Latin  and  Greek 
literature,  and  his  lectures  were  thronged,  for  he  was 
as  eloquent  as  he  was  learned.  As  Lorenzo  had  sent 
him  to  Rome  in  charge  of  his  son  Pietro,  who  Avas 
received  Avith  great  pomp  by  Innocent  VIII. ,  that 
pontiff  requested  Politian  to  translate  Herodianus 
into  Latin,  and  recompensed  him  with  a  gift  of  two 
hundred  gold  crowns.  Politian,  however,  was  above 
taking  this  present,  for  he  had  a  private  fortune  of 
his  own,  and  had  been  given  a  priory  and  a  canonry 
in  the  metropolitan  church  of  Florence,  besides  which, 
he  lived  at  the  expense  of  Lorenzo.  He  had  formed 
a  close  intimacy  with  Pico  della  Mirandola,  who  had 
renounced  his  social  position  in  order  to  devote  his 
whole  time  to  literature ;  and  these  two  friends,  to- 
gether with  Giovanni  Lascaris  and  a  few  others, 
formed  themselves  into  a  select  literary  group.  Lo- 
renzo placed  the  celebrated  Lanrcntiana  library  at 
their  disposal ;  and  it  was  from  this  period  that  dates 
the  publication  of  the  Miscellancce^  in  which  ancient 
literature  received  so  high  a  meed  of  praise. 

The  teaching  of  Politian  acquired  so  much  celeb- 
rity that  students  from  all  parts  of  the  Avorld  came  to 
take  lessons  from  him  ;  two  or   three  of  them   after- 


238  FLORENCE. 

wards  became  professors  in  the  Universities  of  Ox- 
ford and  Oporto,  and  by  the  influence  of  John  Tex- 
eira,  Chancellor  of  the  kingdom  of  Portugal,  he  was 
appointed  historiographist  to  King  John  II.,  and  in- 
structed to  Avrite  the  annals  of  Portuguese  conquest 
in  the  colonies.  It  was  while  preparing  this  great 
work  that  he  died,  before  reaching  the  age  of  forty. 

The  most  infamous  calumnies  were  propagated  as 
to  the  cause  of  his  death,  and  a  writer  of  some  weight, 
Paolo  Giovio,  has  not  scrupled  to  adopt  them  as  true. 
Other  writers  have  reproduced  his  statements,  but  it 
is  more  pleasant  to  believe  the  assertions  of  those 
who  attribute  his  premature  death  to  grief  at  the 
death  of  his  patron,  Lorenzo,  and  the  disasters  which 
overtook  his  family.  Pietro  do'  Medici,  his  pupil,  had 
been  driven  from  Florence,  and  the  fortunes  of  the 
Medici  were  trembling  to  their  base,  when  the  poet 
took  up  his  lyre  to  sing  the  plaintive  melody  ^'  Mono- 
dia  in  Laurentium  Medicii,"  in  which  he  poured  out 
his  own  grief  and  extolled  the  virtues  of  his  lost  pro- 
tector. Bembo  has  cleared  him  of  the  calumnies  to 
which  Paolo  Giovio  gave  currency,  and  Dandolo,  who 
has  already  been  referred  to  as  the  author  of  ^^  Flor- 
ence Down  to  the  Fall  of  the  Republic,"  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  same  end  by  the  discovery  of  a  document 
written  by  the  Dominican  monk  Ubaldino,  who  was 
charged  by  Savonarola  to  conduct  his  funeral  in  the 
convent  of  San  Marco,  where  he  had  so  often  dis- 
coursed.    In  this  document;  which  is  entitled  '^  Ru- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLOREXTINES.  239 

bertus  Ubaldinus  de  Galliano  Dominicanai  familiie 
monachus,  de  obitu  ct  sepultura  domini  Angeli  Poli- 
tiani,"  it  is  said  that  Politian  died  like  a  good  Chris- 
tiaiij  and  there  is  an  allusion  to  the  grief  which  he 
felt  at  the  decease  of  Lorenzo  and  Pico  della  Miran- 
dola.  The  fierce  disputes  between  the  writers  of  that 
day  go  far  to  explain  these  cruel  insinuations,  as  has 
already  been  seen  in  the  case  of  Filelfo  and  Poggio. 
Politian's  bitterest  enemy  was  one  Giorgio  Merula,  of 
Alexandria,  a  professor  at  the  University  of  ]\[ilan. 
When  the  MlsceUanecG  were  published  Merula  found 
that  they  contained  several  ideas  of  his  own,  and 
opinions  contrary  to  his  as  well,  and  he  accordingly 
wrote  a  strong  pamphlet,  Avhich,  though  not  printed, 
was  distributed  throughout  Florence.  To  this  Poli- 
tian replied  with  another  pamphlet,  in  which  he  spoke 
of  his  adversary,  under  the  pseudonym  of  ]\[abilius, 
in  very  cutting  terms.  The  feud,  however,  was  ulti- 
mately healed,  and  Merula  became  a  warm  friend  of 
Politian  before  his  death. 

The  influence  of  Politian  upon  his  contemporaries 
was  very  great,  his  chief  speciality,  des})itc  the  halo 
of  poesy  which  the  pubhcation  of  the  Stance  had  cast 
around  him,  being  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  authors.  He  wrote  very  little  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  Stauzc^ 
the  only  known  works  by  him  in  Italian  are  a  Can- 
zone, which  is  transcribed  in  Crescimbeni's  History 
of  Literature,  and  a  beautiful  poem  called  ^^  Orfeo." 


240  FLOKENCE. 

He  was  without  a  rival  in  Greek,  and  wrote  com- 
mentaries on  most  of  the  chissic  authors,  his  other 
works  comprising  Elegies,  Epigrams,  Miscellanies,  a 
version  of  Herodianus,  a  eulogy  of  Homer,  and  twelve 
letters  containing  some  valuable  information  about 
the  literary  history  of  the  last  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  He  made  a  careful  collation  of  most  of  the 
ancient  manuscripts  in  the  Laurent 'mnctj  and  prepared 
the  "  Greek  Paraphrase  ''  of  the  '^  Institutes  "  of  Jus- 
tinian ;  the  celebrated  ^^  Pandects  "  manuscript,  Avhich 
is  preserved  at  Florence,  furnishing  him  with  much 
valuable  information.  Although  a  canon  of  the 
Church,  he  did  not  concern  himself  much  about 
theology,  and  he  is  regarded  as  the  real  founder  of 
the  Italian  Theatre,  as  he  was  the  first  to  write  dia- 
logue for  his  characters.  The  works  of  Politian  were 
first  published  by  Aldo  in  1498,  and  the  best  life  of 
him  is  the  biography  published  at  Bergamo  in  1747 
by  Sarassi,  as  a  preface  to  his  edition  of  the  StanzCj 
though  another  good  biography  was  published  at 
Leipsic  in  1736  by  Mencken.  Erasmus  proclaimed 
him  to  be  ''  a  miracle  of  nature,"  but  the  miracle  was 
so  calumniated  by  the  author  of  ^^  Florentine  Anec- 
dotes," and  by  Vossius,  on  the  faith  of  Paolo  Giovio, 
that  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  original  docmnents, 
and  upon  the  letters  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  and 
of  other  contemporaries,  to  clear  his  memory.  The 
evidence  of  Abbe  Mehus,  in  his  '^  Preface  to  the  Life 
of  Ambrose   Camaldoli,"  alone  suffices  to  show  that 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLOKENTIXES.  241 

Politian (lied  a  nobler  deatli  than  liis  detractors  averred. 
He  says,  "Messire  Angelo  Politian,  attacked  by  a 
violent  fever,  died  after  an  illness  of  fourteen  days, 
and,  unfortunate  even  after  death,  malevolence  Avould 
have  it  that  he  expired  in  a  delirium  caused  by  his 
passions.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  one  so  versed  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  in  history,  in  antiquity,  in  dialectics, 
and  in  philosophy,  had  not  more  command  over  him- 
self. It  should  be  added  that  Pietro  de'  Medici,  his 
pu})il,  had  opened  negotiations  Avith  the  Pope  for 
making  him  a  cardinal  just  at  the  time  that  he  Avas 
banished,  that  the  death  of  Lorenzo  was  a  great  blow 
to  him,  and  that  he  was  involved  in  the  same  hostility 
which  led  to  the  expulsion  of  Pietro. '^ 

PICO  DELLA  MIRAXDOLA. 

(14G3-1494.) 

Whenever  an  illustration  of  youthful  precocity  was 
sought  by  any  writer  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, the  name  of  Pico  della  Mirandola,  the  young 
noble  who  abandoned  his  social  position  to  devote 
himself  to  study,  and  who  on  one  occasion  offered  to 
carry  on  a  discussion  upon  every  branch  of  human 
knowledge,  at  once  occurred  to  him,  and  this  name 
has  become  renowned,  not  only  in  Italy,  but  through- 
out Europe. 

Giovanni  Pico  della  ^lirandola  was  the  third  son  of 
Giovanni  Francesco,  signer  of  ]\[irandola  and  Concor- 
dia.    Ilis   mother  was   almost   as  famous  as  he  was, 

16 


242  FLOEENCE. 

and  one  of  the  greatest  artists  of  the  day  represents, 
in  a  well-known  work,  young  Giovanni  in  his  mother's 
arms,  as  if  to  typify  her  tender  care  for  an  infant  who 
gave  so  much  promise,  even  from  his  cradle,  of  the 
knowledge  which  was  to  make  him  one  of  the  won- 
ders of  his  age.  When  only  ten  years  old  he  made  a 
speech  in  public^  and  read  some  of  his  own  poetry. 
AVhen  he  had  mastered  Avith  surprising  facility  the 
instruction  given  him  at  home,  he  was  sent  to  Bologna, 
where  he  studied  philosophy  and  theology.  Wealthy 
and  independent,  he  determined  to  visit  aU  the  great- 
est universities  in  Europe,  and  instead  of  listening  to 
the  lectures  of  the  most  eminent  professors,  he  was 
able  to  embarrass  them  by  his  questions,  and  argue 
successfully  Avith  them. 

Unfortunately  for  his  fame,  the  study  of  the  Syrian, 
the  Arabian,  and  the  Chaldean  languages  led  him  to 
indulge  in  vague  and  speculative  views,  and  in  the 
unprofitable  examination  of  the  Cabala.  He  had 
formed  a  library  of  the  Cabala,  the  catalogue  of  which, 
published  by  Gaffarel,  is  still  extant. 

He  Avas  not  one  of  those  modest  scholars  who  love 
science  for  its  own  sake,  and  Nature,  while  lavishing 
her  gifts  upon  him,  had  endoAved  him  Avith  a  feeling 
of  pride  Avhich  impelled  him  to  air  those  gifts  before 
the  Avorld.  Thus  it  Avas  that  in  14G8  Pico  della  ]\Ii- 
randola,  then  in  the  plenitude  of  his  faculties,  arrived 
at  the  Court  of  Innocent  VHI.  Avith  a  list  of  nine  hun- 
dred propositions,  ^^  De  omni  re  scibiH,"  AAdiich  he  un- 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  243 

dertook  to  sustain  in  public  debate  against  all  the 
savants  who  chose  to  enter  the  field.  As  he  was  very 
wealthy  he  further  declared  his  willingness  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  all  those  who  would  make  the  journev. 
The  list  of  propositions  has  been  preserved,  and  it 
has  been  Avell  remarked  that  the  learning  of  anv  one 
who  answered  tlieni  all  woidd  not  amount  to  very 
much. 

The  immediate  result  of  this  challenge  was  to  raise 
up  enemies  for  him  among  those  whom  he  attempted 
to  outshine,  and  thirteen  of  his  propositions  were  de- 
nounced as  being  tainted  with  heresy.  lie,  of  course, 
had  his  answer  ready,  and  his  first  argument  was  to 
prove  that  these  very  propositions  had  been  sanc- 
tioned by  theologians  whose  orthodoxy  was  unim- 
peachable. He  turned  the  laugh  against  his  accusers, 
who  had  made  the  blunder  of  representing  the  Cabala 
as  a  man  who  had  spoken  evil  of  Jesus  Christ.  In- 
nocent YIII.,  however,  condemned  the  propositions, 
and  Pico  left  Rome  for  France,  where  he  was  held  in 
great  esteem.  He  was  again  denounced  during  his  ab- 
sence, and  the  Pope  summoned  him  to  appear  before 
his  tribunal  j  but  though  he  did  so,  and  had  no  diffi- 
cidty  in  clearing  himself,  the  mortification  fur  him 
Avas  very  great. 

This  was  the  close  of  his  public  career,  and  having 
abandoned  his  titles  and  property  in  favor  of  his 
nephews,  he  lived  in  the  intimacy  of  learned  men  at 
the  Court  of  his  friend  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  being 


244  FLOKENCE. 

very  regular  in  his  attendance  at  the  Academy  of 
PlatOy  where  Marcilio  Ficino  and  Politian  bore  him 
company.  He  died  in  the  prime  of  youth,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-one,  having  been  preceded  to  the  tomb  only 
two  months  before  by  Politian.  Charles  VIII.  entered 
Florence  on  the  very  day  of  his  death,  and  the  French 
King,  who  had  received  him  at  the  Court  of  Paris, 
hearing  of  his  serious  illness,  sent  two  of  his  physicians 
to  him,  but  he  had  breathed  his  last  before  they  could 
arrive.  He  died  in  the  true  foith  of  a  Christian,  be- 
queathing all  his  fortune  to  his  servitors  and  to  the 
poor  of  Florence. 

His  works  comprised  a  poem  upon  the  creation  of 
the  universe,  in  which  he  attempts  to  conciliate  the 
Bible  with  the  doctrines  of  Plato — a  favorite  theme 
in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  a  scholastic  treatise  entitled 
'•^  De  Ente  et  Uno,"  eight  volumes  of  ^^  Letters,"  a 
commentary  upon  ^^  Platonic  Love,"  a  harangue  upon 
^^  The  Dignity  of  Man,"  several  pieces  of  poetry,  and 
twelve  books  denouncing  judicial  astrology,  the  last 
named  being  looked  upon  as  the  most  important  of 
his  many  compositions.  The  only  work  of  his  in  the 
vulgar  tongue  was  his  commentary  of  his  friend 
Benivieni's  ^'  Platonic  Love." 

Pico  della  Mirandola,  prodigy  of  learning  as  he  was, 
and  one  of  the  most  popidar  men  of  his  age,  did  not 
as  a  writer  make  any  great  contribution  to  the  sum 
of  human  knowledge,  and  his  science  was  Platonic, 
and  professed  with  a  view  to  effect. 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTI^"ES.  245 

MACHIAVELLI. 

(14G9-1527.) 

NIccolo  Machiavelli  was  born  at  Florence  in  May, 
1469^  Lis  father,  who  was  a  judge,  being  called  Ber- 
nardo, while  the  name  of  his  mother  was  Bartolomea 
di  Stefano  Nelli.  It  was  believed  at  one  time  that  he 
was  descended  from  a  noble  family  which  had  given 
several  marquises  to  Tuscany  ;  but  the  truth  is  that 
his  father,  though  well  Ijorn  and  moderately  rich,  was 
not  of  noble  descent.  He  was  a  native  of  Yal  di  Pisa, 
and  his  property  was  at  Montespertoli.  These  fiicts 
concerning  the  great  political  writer  who  has  acquired 
a  proverbial  reputation  for  astuteness  and  perfidy  are 
derived  from  Passerini  and  Pietro  Fanfani. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  IMachiavelli  made  a  pro- 
found study  of  Latin  and  the  Italian  classics.  At  the 
age  of  five-and-tAventy  he  was  employed  in  the 
Government  office  which  conducted  the  business  relat- 
ing to  embassies  and  Avar,  while  four  years  later — in 
1498 — a  decree  of  the  Grand  Council  raised  him  to 
the  rank  of  Second  Chancellor.  He  had  scarcely 
entered  upon  these  new  duties  than  he  was  promoted 
to  be  Secretary  to  the  Council  of  Ten,  and  so  able 
was  his  conduct  of  affairs  that  he  held  the  post  for 
fifteen  years,  though  the  ordinary  tenure  was  only  for 
a  month. 

In  1499  he  undertook  the  first  of  a  series  of  em- 
bassies, and  in  the  hands  of  the  Government  of  Flor- 


246  FLOKENCE. 

ence  appeared  to  be  a  docile  and  supple  instrument. 
But  while  Macliiavelli  seemed  to  be  only  expressing 
the  vicAvs  of  those  by  whom  he  was  commissioned, 
he  had  been  skilful  enough  to  dictate  the  resolutions 
of  those  who  sent  him.  The  first  important  mission 
which  he  undertook  was  to  King  Louis  XII.  of  France 
in  1500.  In  the  following  year  he  returned  to  fill  his 
duties  as  Second  Chancellor,  though  not  for  long  at  a 
time,  as  we  find  him  first  at  Pistoia,  then  at  Pisa, 
then  at  Siena,  and  then  at  Arezzo.  In  1502  he  ac- 
companied Cuesar  Borgia  to  Imola,  and  then  through- 
out the  Romagna  and  Umbria,  Avhen  that  Prince  was 
engaged  in  reducing  the  rebel  lords,  Vitellozzo  Vitelli, 
Oliveretto  da  Fermo,  Pagolo,  and  the  Duke  de  Gra- 
vina  Orsini.  It  was  during  these  different  embassies, 
more  military  than  diplomatic,  that  Macliiavelli,  con- 
stantly engaged  in  sieges,  assaults,  fortifications,  and 
battles,  directed  his  brilliant  faculties  to  the  study  of 
war  and  the  practical  side  of  a  military  profession. 

But  a  higher  mission  awaited  him,  and  the  soldier 
was  soon  merged  in  the  diplomatist.  At  the  death  of 
Alexander  VL,  Florence  took  a  deep  interest  in  the 
election  of  a  new  pope,  and  was  very  anxious  to  im- 
pose her  candidate  upon  the  Sacred  College.  Car- 
dinal Francesco  Soderini  was  sent  from  Volterra  to 
Rome,  Macliiavelli  accompanying  him  as  far  as  Val  di 
Arno,  and  then  proceeding  on  his  own  account  to  the 
conclave,  in  which  he  played  a  very  important  part. 

In  1505  he  was  intrusted  with  the  realization  of 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  247 

an  idea  wliicli  lie  had  long  been  advocating,  and 
Avliicli  was  destined  to  bring  about  a  complete  revolu- 
tion in  the  constitution  of  Italian  States.  His  plan 
Avas  to  substitute  for  the  mercenary  forces,  upon  the 
fidelity  of  which  little  reliance  could  be  placed,  and 
wliltl),  animated  by  no  patriotic  sentiments,  often 
turned  tail  and  fled,  a  national  army  composed  solely 
of  citizens. 

In  1503,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Council,  he  urged  the 
people  to  form  an  army,  and  contributed  to  the  ex- 
penses of  their  equipment,  and  in  1506  he  proposed 
the  creation  of  a  special  magistracy,  which  was  to 
form  companies  of  soldiers,  superintend  their  drilling 
and  instruction,  and  take  care  that  they  were  readv 
to  march  at  inunediate  notice.  This  was  his  greatest 
work,  and  he  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the  new  mag- 
istracy, obtaining  from  the  Council  of  Ten  their  sanc- 
tion to  the  measures  which  he  deemed  necessary, 
and  never  relaxing  in  his  efforts  until  he  felt  that  the 
change  had  taken  firm  root.  Mercenary  armies  were 
suppressed  for  good,  and  to  Machiavelli  is  due  the 
credit  of  substituting  for  them  those  national  forces 
which  are  still  the  idtinia  ratio  of  civilized  societies. 
The  superiority  of  infantry  over  cavalry  was  another 
favorite  theory  of  Machiavelli,  Avhose  views  in  regard 
to  warfare  have  been  embodied  by  Algarotti  in  a 
work  entitled  *^  The  Military  Science  of  the  Floren- 
tine Secretary,"  and  dedicated  to  Prince  Henry  of 
Prussia. 


248  FLOKENCE. 

In  1506,  while  still  busily  engaged  in  his  work  of 
military  organization,  he  was  obliged  to  return  to 
Rome  and  accompany  Julius  II.  to  Imola  when  the 
latter  was  attempting  to  subjugate  Bologna.  In 
1507  he  went  to  supervise  the  recruiting  of  foot- 
soldiers  at  Val  di  Tcvere,  Valdichiana,  Chianti,  and 
the  valleys  of  the  Elsa  and  the  Cecina,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  same  year  he  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to 
Piombino  and  Siena. 

At  the  end  of  1507  he  was  sent  to  meet  the  Em- 
peror Maximilian,  who  was  about  to  enter  Italy  on 
his  way  to  receive  the  imperial  crown  from  the 
Pontiff,  and  as  Florence  had  to  provide  a  subsidy, 
Machiavelli  was  sent  to  settle  the  matter.  He  was 
six  months  on  this  mission,  and  he  found  time  to 
write  the  "  Ritratti  delle  cose  d'Alemagna,"  the 
^^Eapporto  delle  cose  della  Magna,"  and  the  ^'Discorso 
sopra  I'lmperatore."  There  is  no  need  to  enumerate 
all  the  diplomatic  missions  upon  which  he  was  em- 
ployed, for  rarely  has  a  public  man  been  so  constantly 
occupied,  but  amidst  all  this  he  seemed  to  be  more 
specially  engrossed  by  military  affairs,  and  may, 
indeed,  be  regarded  as  the  War  Minister  of  the  Re- 
public, with  all  the  practical  knovrledge  and  more 
than  the  deliberative  ability  of  a  great  commander. 
The  long  and  arduous  struggle  with  Pisa  gave  him 
an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  talents,  and  it  may 
be  said  that  the  measures  adopted  to  capture  the  city 
were  suggested  by  him. 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  249 

These  almost  permanent  duties  did  not  prevent 
him  from  rendering  stiJl  greater  services,  and  tlie 
post  of  Ambassador  to  tlic  Court  of  France  l)eiiig 
vacant,  lie  filled  it  for  a  short  time  in  1510,  taking 
up  his  residence  first  at  Lyons,  and  afterwards  at 
Blois  and  Tours. 

Tlie  fjill  of  the  Gonfaloniere  Soderini  Avhich  took 
place  upon  the  30th  of  August  1512,  during  his  ab- 
sence, was  very  prejudicial  to  him,  for  after  the  change 
of  Government  which  followed  he  was  deprived  of  his 
post  both  as  Chancellor  and  Secretary  of  the  Ten. 
A  decree  was  even  passed  ordering  him  not  to  leave 
the  place  of  residence  assigned  to  him,  and  he  was 
forbidden  to  attend  the  Signoria  for  a  twelvemonth. 
Mixed  up  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  ]\[edici  in  1513, 
he  was  imprisoned  in  the  Bargello,  and  even  put  to 
the  question,  but  Leo  X.,  delighted  at  his  election 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  had  him  set  at  liberty. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  tortured,  but  he 
met  his  punishment  with  the  stoic  courage  of  the  men 
of  old,  and  left  behind  him  a  curious  sonnet  written 
at  the  very  time. 

While  his  body  was  still  crushed  and  bruised,  he 
repaired  to  his  humble  villa  near  San  Casciano,  and 
there  devoted  himself  to  study,  leading  a  peasant's 
life,  playing  bowls  and  backgammon  with  his  ni'igh- 
bors,  and  showing  great  affability  in  his  relations 
with  them.  His  political  career  seemed  to  be  over, 
and  he   worked  very  hard,  writing  for  the  Academy 


250  FLOEENCE. 

of  the  Ruccellai  Gardens,  the  ^^  Prmclpc '^  (1^'>13), 
^^  Discourses  on  the  First  Book  of  Livy "  (1516- 
1519),  the  '^Dialogue  upon  Language/'  and  the 
^^Seven  Books  of  the  Art  of  War"  (1520).  The  ^^Life 
of  Castruccio  "  was  Avritten  at  Lucca  about  the  end 
of  the  same  year.  Under  the  princedom  of  the 
Medici  he  again  returned  into  favor,  but  though  he 
was  employed  upon  several  diplomatic  missions  he 
did  not  hold  any  permanent  post,  and  it  was  imder 
these  circumstances  that  he  came  to  write  the  ^^  Storie 
Florentine,"  and  the  two  comedies,  Manclragola  and 
Cliziaj  which  were  composed  for  representation  before 
Leo  X.  Andrea  del  Sarto  and  Aristotle  de  San  Gallo 
imdertook  the  scenic  arrangements,  and  the  audience 
comprised  cardinals  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  Vati- 
can. Francesco  Guicciardini,  the  great  historian  and 
the  Governor  of  the  Eomagna,  had  these  comedies 
represented  at  Bologna  during  the  carnival  of  1526, 
and  the  Venetians  also  were  anxious  to  witness  the 
performance  of  them. 

Pope  Clement  VII.,  in  1526,  called  him  back  to 
activity  by  intrusting  him  with  the  inspection  of  the 
fortifications  of  Florence,  the  Pontiff  foreseeing  the 
possibility  of  the  city  having  to  sustain  a  siege  j  and 
Machiavelli  having,  with  a  number  of  military  engi- 
neers, taken  counsel  as  to  the  best  measures  to  be 
adopted,  made  his  report  to  the  Pope. 

The  whole  of  that  year  was  spent  by  him  in  nego- 
tiations  with    Guicciardini    and  the   proveditore   of 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTIXES.  251 

Venice  at  Cremona.  He  thus  escaped  the  tumult 
caused  by  the  conspiracy  of  the  26th  of  April,  and 
went  upon  Guicciardini's  behalf  to  Doria  and  Genoa 
in  quest  of  a  galley  and  some  reinforcements.  From 
Genoa  he  went  to  Leghorn,  in  the  company  of 
the  Marchioness  of  ^Mantua,  and  he  died  at  Florence 
on  the  23d  of  June,  1527. 

A  letter  from  his  son  proves  that  Machiavelli  died 
a  poor  man,  and  no  wonder  that  he  did,  for  his  life 
was  full  of  vicissitudes.  While  holding  office,  he 
spent  his  salary  freely,  and  when  he  fell  from  power 
he  did  nothing  to  increase  his  fortune.  In  whatever 
light  he  is  looked  at,  he  is  a  genius,  though  a  French 
writer  has  written  a  phrase  which  the  Italians  take 
in  very  bad  part :  "  The  misfortunes  of  Italy  arose 
solely  from  the  fact  that  she  was  capable  of  producing 
the  Principe."  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  Machia- 
velli inculcated  the  odious  maxim  as  to  the  end  justi- 
fying the  means,  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  Avith 
him  it  was  dictated  by  conviction  rather  than  by  per- 
versity. He  was  a  great  patriot  beyond  all  question,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  being  an  incomparable  artist  and  a 
gifted  writer  who  has  the  true  historical  sense,  and  who 
has  left  political  portraits  Avhich  a  Tacitus  would  not 
disown. 

FRANCESCO  GUICCIARDINL 
(1483-1540.) 

Francesco  Guicciardini  is  the  classic  historian  of 
Florence  during  the  Medici  a.i^e,  and  whatever 


252  FLOEENCE. 

be  tliouglit  of  Ills  work,  as  a  well-informed  contem- 
porary and  a  Avriter  of  calm  and  moderate  judgment 
he  occupies  a  prominent  place  among  the  Florentine 
celebrities  of  his  time. 

He  was  born  in  Florence  on  March  6,  1483,  his 
parents  being  Piero  and  Simona  Gianfigliazzi,  and  he 
came  of  a  noble  and  illustrious  family.  ^larcilio 
Ficino  stood  sponsor  for  him,  and  after  a  studious 
career  as  a  boy,  he  was  sent  by  his  father,  at  the  age 
of  twenty,  to  Ferrara,  in  order  that  he  might  be  kept 
out  of  the  political  quarrels  which  were  constantly 
occurring  in  his  native  town.  From  the  University 
of  Ferrara  he  went  to  that  of  Padua,  and  after  study- 
ing law  there  he  returned  to  Florence,  and  Avas  ap- 
pointed in  October,  1505,  to  a  professorship.  He 
did  not  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  law,  in  which  he 
soon  acquired  no  little  celebrity,  though  he  made  a 
briUiant  debut  at  the  bar  and  secured  plenty  of  prac- 
tice. It  was  upon  the  14th  of  January,  1507,  that 
he  was  affianced  to  Maria  di  Alamanno  Salviati. 
His  influence  was  so  great  that  in  the  course  of  this 
same  year  the  corporation  of  merchants  appointed 
him  consul,  but  he  could  not  accept  the  post,  as  the 
law  required  that  the  holder  of  it  must  be  thirty 
years  of  age.  Hencefor\\^ard,  corporations,  societies, 
charities,  and  religious  communities  sought  his  advice, 
but  an  unexpected  event  suddenly  caused  him  to 
transfer  his  attention  from  civil  to  political  affairs. 
This  occurred  during  the  Holy  Alliance  between 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  253 

the  Pope,  the  King  of  Aragon,  England,  the  Swiss, 
and  the  Venetians,  Julius  II.  being  very  anxious  that 
the  Florentines,  Avho  ^Ycre  on  friendly  terms  with 
Louis  XII.  of  France,  should  join  it.  The  Floren- 
tines were  much  embarrassed  what  to  do,  for  they 
did  not  wish  to  offend  either  Louis  XII.  or  the  King 
of  Aragon.  Eventually  it  was  resolved  to  send  an 
embassy  to  King  Ferdinand  at  Burgos,  and  Guicciar- 
dini  was  selected  on  the  17th  of  October,  1511. 
Upon  the  19th  of  January  following  he  started  on 
his  mission,  his  natural  hesitation  being  overcome  by 
his  father,  who  pointed  out  to  him  what  a  great  dis- 
tinction it  was  for  him  to  be  employed  in  such  a 
capacity  at  his  age. 

The  year  1513  was  marked  by  the  grave  events 
which  followed  the  fall  of  the  French  in  Italy  after 
the  victory  of  Ravenna,  ten  times  more  costly  than 
a  defeat,  and  on  the  2d  of  September  the  Medici 
re-entered  Florence  in  triumph.  The  Florentine  Re- 
public ceased  to  exist,  and  the  only  ambassador  whose 
post  was  a  permanent  one  was  Jacopo  Salviati,  the 
resident  Minister  at  the  Vatican.  Guicciardini  asked 
to  be  recalled,  and  it  was  while  w^aiting  permission  to 
demand  a  farewell  audience  of  the  King  that  he  in- 
dited his  "'  Ricordi  autobiografici." 

In  October,  1513,  he  left  Burgos  for  Florence, 
where  he  arrived  on  the  5th  of  January  following, 
and  in  August  of  that  year  he  was  appointed  one  of 
the  eight  members  of  the  Balia.     His  father  had  died 


254  FLORENCE. 

in  the  meanwhile^  and  the  sad  news  was  brought  to 
him  at  Piacenza.  After  being  for  some  time  under 
suspicion,  and  having  been  refused  all  part  in  public 
affairs  by  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Duke  of  Urbino,  he 
succeeded  in  so  completely  allaying  all  distrust,  that 
the  latter,  when  starting  on  his  campaign  in  Lom- 
bardy,  appointed  Guicciardini  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Signori  who  were  to  act  as  regents  during  his 
two  months'  absence. 

From  this  time  forth  he  spent  his  whole  life  in  the 
service  of  the  Government,  and  in  1515  he  was  sent 
to  Cortona  out  of  compliment  to  Leo  X.,  who  stopped 
there  on  his  way  to  meet  Francois  L,  King  of  France, 
at  Bologna.  After  this  mission  was  over  he  was  ap- 
pointed Consistorial  Advocate,  and  then  Governor  of 
Modena  and  Reggio,  whence  he  was  sent  to  Parma, 
and  made  Commissary  General  of  the  Papal  army. 
During  the  war  between  Francois  I.  and  Charles  V., 
Guicciardini  Avas  employed  to  relieve  the  Milan  exiles 
and  to  raise  an  army  corps  for  the  recovery  of  the 
duchy.  An  opportunity  was  afforded  him  of  showing 
his  abilities  as  a  soldier,  for  the  brother  of  IMarshal 
Lautrec,  who  commanded  the  French,  having  tried 
to  take  Reggio  by  surprise,  he  forestalled  the  attack, 
and  recalling  Guide  Rangone,  who  had  been  sent 
with  his  troops  to  Modena,  frustrated  the  plan. 

The  two  pontiffs  who  succeeded  Leo  X.  confirmed 
him  in  his  appointments,  and  Clement  VII.  made  him 
President  of  the   Romagna  and   Lieutenant-General 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  255 

of  the  Pontifical  army,  with  authority  over  tlic  Duke 
of  Urbiiio  himself. 

The  entrance  of  the  Constabk;  do  Bourbon  into 
Rome,  and  the  sack  of  the  city  by  hi.s  troops,  re- 
garded as  the  greatest  humiHation  since  the  barbaric 
invasion,  brought  Guicciardini  into  disgrace,  for  Pope 
Clement  VII.,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  the  mole  of 
Hadrian,  reproached  him  for  not  having  staved  off 
defeat.  He  accordingly  withdrew  into  complete  se- 
clusion at  Finocchieto,  and  wrote  a  Dialogue  in  which 
he  confessed  his  errors  and  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  ''  human  prudence  is  blind,  and  that  avc  are  in 
God's  hands." 

His  disgrace  was  not  of  long  duration.  The  Peace 
of  Barcelona,  signed  by  Clement  VII.  and  Charles 
v.,  gave  peace  to  Italy  at  the  expense  of  Florence. 
Guicciardini  was  made  Governor  of  Bologna,  and  at 
the  Pope's  death  he  took  service  under  the  ^Medici, 
urging  Duke  Alexander  to  crush  the  democratic  ele- 
ment in  the  city.  The  dagger  of  Lorenzino,  how- 
ever, brought  that  prince's  career  to  an  early  close, 
and  the  younger  branch  came  to  power  with  Cosimo 
I.  (Julcclanliiil,  Avliosc  amljition  grew  bv  Avhat  it  led 
on,  attempted  to  obtain  a  mastery  over  the  young 
prince,  but  the  latter,  wily,  like  most  of  his  race, 
availed  himself  of  Guicciardini's  advice  to  get  rid  of 
his  enemies,  and  then  cast  him  aside  as  a  useless  and 
possibly  dangerous  instrument. 

Guicciardini  withdrew  in  humiliation  to  his  ^illa  at 


256  FLOKENCE. 

Arcetri,  and  it  was  there  that  he  wrote  his  ^^  History  . 
of  Italy,"  dying,  a    year  aftenvards  at   the  age  of 
fifty-seven  (May  27,  1540). 

This  history  is  his  greatest  work,  and  though  the 
merits  of  it  have  been  appraised  in  very  different 
terms,  M.  Thiers,  in  his  ^^  History  of  the  Consulate 
and  the  Empire,"  says  of  him  that  ^^  he  has  related 
the  events  of  his  day,  nearly  all  of  which  came  under 
his  own  observation,  with  such  a  graphic  pen,  and 
with  such  profound  judgment,  that  his  history  de- 
serves a  place  among  the  most  enduring  monuments 
of  human  genius." 

There  are,  however,  many  imi)erfections  in  his 
works,  for  if  he  is  superior  to  MachiavelK  as  regards 
profundity  of  judgment  and  elocpience,  he  is  inferior 
to  him  as  regards  the  arrangement  and  style  of  writ- 
ing. Like  MachiavelK,  he  has  left  ^'  Discourses  on 
the  First  Decade  of  Livy,"  and  he  also  Avrote  ^'  Dis- 
courses upon  the  Changes  and  Keforms  of  the  Gov- 
ernments of  Florence,"  in  which  he  displayed  political 
sagacity  of  the  highest  kind. 

His  CarteggiOj  or  collection  of  correspondence  dur- 
ing his  mission  to  Spain,  his  govemorshi}^  of  Modena, 
Parma,  and  Eeggio,  and  his  presidency  of  the  Ro- 
magna;  is  remarkable  for  the  profundity  of  judgment 
to  which  it  testifies.  He  was  Republican  in  theory, 
and  to  judge  by  his  writings  possessed  a  filial  affec- 
tion for  Florence  that  caused  his  heart  to  bleed  for 
her  while  she  Avas  in  the  hands  of  the  stranger.     He 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  257 

cordially  detested  the  priesthood  and  its  influence^  but 
hy  a  singular  anomaly  he  was  the  friend  of  princes 
and  tyrants,  and  while  denouncing  the  priests  as  im- 
postors, he  was  the  willing  servitor  of  pontiffs.  His 
political  conduct  was  at  total  variance  with  his  doc- 
trines, and  we  must  infer  that  he  was  consumed  by 
ambition  and  the  love  of  power.  One  of  his  dreams 
was  an  Italian  federation  under  the  supremacy  of 
Florence,  and  ^Machiavelli,  Avith  his  keen  insight  into 
the  future,  had  also  antici^^ated  the  now  realized  unity 
of  the  Peninsula.  Francesco  Guicciardini  left  no  chil- 
dren, but  he  had  a  brother — Lodovico — who  settled  at 
Antwerp,  where  he  married  and  had  a  son,  also  named 
Lodovico,  who  wrote  the  history  of  the  Xetherlands. 
This  Lodovico  died  in  1589,  and  his  works,  written 
in  Italian,  have  been  translated  into  German,  Flem- 
ish, and  French,  among  them  being  a  "  Description 
of  the  Xetherlands,"  and  '^  Commentaries  upon  the 
Events  of  Europe,  and  of  the  Netherlands  in  Particu- 
lar, from  1529  to  1560.''  He  had  not  the  keen  vision 
of  his  uncle,  but  his  works  arc  regarded  as  standard 
ones  by  the  Dutch. 

GALILEO. 

(15G1-1G4L) 

Vincenzo  Galilei  and  Julia  Ammanati  of  Pistoja  in 
Tuscany,  were  the  parents  of  Galileo  Galilei,  who  was 
born  at  Pisa  on  the  15th  of  February,  1564.  Ilis 
introduction  to  science  was   through   poeti'y,  music, 

17 


258  FLORENCR 

and  the  plastic  arts,  but  when  he  had  once  begun  to 
study  science  he  regarded  the  fine  arts  as  no  more 
than  a  relaxation  from  arduous  labor.  His  father 
being  anxious  that  he  shoidd  become  a  doctor,  he  ma- 
triculated at  the  University  of  Pisa  in  1581,  and  at- 
tended the  medical  lectures  of  Andrea  Cesalpino,  but 
having  been  accidentally  led  to  study  mathematics  he 
acquired  such  proficiency  in  that  science  that  in  1589 
he  was  appointed  professor  at  Pisa.  Private  misun- 
derstandings induced  him,  however,  to  remove  to 
Padua,  where  during  eighteen  years  he  filled  the 
chair  of  astronomical  sciences.  Florence,  in  the 
meanwhile,  was  very  anxious  to  secure  his  services, 
and  Cosimo  II.  appointed  him  his  philosopher  and 
mathematician,  supplying  him  with  ample  means  for 
devoting  himself  to  the  speculative  inquiries  and 
costly  experiments  which  his  researches  necessitated. 
His  astronomical  studies  involved  him  in  persecu- 
tion and  sufi'ering,  for  in  propagating  the  system  of 
Copernicus  the  theologians  accused  him  of  teaching 
doctrines  opposed  to  the  Bible,  and  a  Florentine  monk 
hurled  against  him  from  the  pulpit  the  passage  from 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  '^  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why 
stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?"  The  noise  of  all 
this  travelled  from  Florence  to  Rome,  and  the  Grand 
Duke,  Avho  was  obliged  to  show  defer(ince  to  the 
Vatican,  advised  Galileo  to  appear  before  the  Inquisi- 
tion and  defend  himself  against  such  a  false  accusa- 
tion.    He  arrived  at  Rome  in  1615,  but  in  spite  of 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  259 

the  aLility  with  whicli  he  argued  that  his  doctrines 
were  orthodox,  he  made  no  impression  upon  the  tri- 
bunal;  which  had  made  up  its  mind  to  condemn  liim. 
He  was,  however,  allowed  to  go  free  upon  condition 
that  he  did  not  teach  the  doctrine  of  Copernicus,  and 
it  was  subsequent  to  this  that  he  wrote  his  ""  Dia- 
logues," and  submitted  them  to  the  censorship  of  the 
Vatican,  obtaining  the  official  sanction  and  printing 
them  in  1632. 

After  an  interval  of  seventeen  years,  from  the  time 
when  Cardinal  Bellarmino,  in  the  name  of  the  Pon- 
tiff, had  forbidden  him  to  propagate  his  doctrines,  he 
Avas  again  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Inquisition. 
He  was  not  treated  as  an  ordinary  prisoner,  and  the 
Grand  Duke,  full  of  solicitude  for  his  welfare,  did  all 
that  he  could  to  shield  him  from  the  possible  conse- 
quences of  the  dreaded  summons.  He  was  lodged  at 
first  with  the  procurator-fiscal  of  the  Holy  Office,  and 
then  he  was  allowed  to  reside  at  the  house  of  the  Flor- 
entine ambassador,  while  at  last  he  Avas  permitted  to 
go  about  the  city  upon  parole.  The  trial  lasted  two 
months,  and  it  ended  in  a  retractation,  followed  by  a 
sentence  of  imprisonment  in  the  dungeons  of  the  In- 
quisition. Urban  VIII.,  however,  commuted  the 
punishment,  and  allowed  him  to  live  first  at  the  Villa 
Medici,  afterwards  in  the  archbishop's  palace  at  Siena, 
and  finally  in  his  own  villa  at  Arcetri,  near  Florence. 
In  1637  he  became  blind,  but  he  continued  to  give 
lessons  to  the  many  devoted  students  of  science  whom 


260  FLORENCE. 

he  had  gathered  around  him,  seated  on  the  terrace  of 
the  villa  where  he  had  spent  so  many  nights  watching 
the  heavens.  Fully  resigned  to  his  lot,  and  venerated 
as  much  for  his  misfortunes  as  for  his  genius,  he  re- 
ceived frequent  visits  from  Cardinal  Leopold  and  the 
Grand  Duke  Ferdinand.  Pie  died  on  tlie  18th  of 
January,  1G41,  aged  seventy-seven,  and  his  body  was 
interred  with  great  pomp  in  Santa  Croce,  the  monu- 
ment erected  to  his  memory  being  close  to  that  of 
Michael  Angelo.  He  was  the  inventor  of  the  micro- 
scope, the  thermometer,  the  sector,  and  the  small 
hydi'ostatic  balance.  It  has  been  denied  that  he  in- 
vented the  telescope,  but  in  my  previous  work, 
^^  Venice,"  I  have  given  the  official  report  of  the  sit- 
ting of  the  Senate  at  which  he  made  the  experiments 
for  which  he  received  a  pension  from  the  Eepublic, 
already  much  indebted  to  him  for  his  seventeen  years^ 
professorship  at  the  University  of  Padua.  The  proba- 
bility is,  however,  that  he  merely  made  a  practical 
application  of  an  invention  due  to  Jacobus  Mebius,  an 
inhabitant  of  Holland,  adapting  the  glasses  made  by 
the  latter  to  tubes  which  enabled  him  to  make  astro- 
nomical observations.  He  also  invented  the  pendu- 
lum, and  in  a  letter  to  Lorenzo  Redi,  still  extant,  he 
explained  how  it  might  be  adapted  to  clocks.  His 
labors  in  the  domain  of  astronomical  science  were 
almost  boundless.  He  brought  into  clear  relief  the 
system  of  gravitation,  explained  the  formation  of  the 
Milky  Way,  discovered   the   stars  which   accompany 


Gali'eo  ( School  of  Sustermans;, 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  261 

Saturn^  and  having  ascertained  the  existence  of  satel- 
lites to  Jupiter,  named  them  "Medici  stars/^  and 
made  a  careful  calculation  of  their  periods.  He  Avas 
the  first  to  discover  the  unevenness  of  the  moon's 
surface,  its  diameter,  and  the  great  altitude  of  its 
mountains.  He  also  pointed  out  the  spots  on  the  smi, 
and  explained  the  character  of  them. 

In  physical  science  his  researches  were  also  very 
extensive,  and  he  proved  that  a  mote  of  straw  and  a 
piece  of  lead  fall  at  an  equal  rate  when  the  air  is  rare- 
fied. The  pneumatic  machine  Avas  invented  to  prove 
this  law  of  nature,  and  the  demonstration  Avas  most 
convincing.  He  laid  doAvn  the  laAv  as  to  the  accelera- 
tion of  Aveighty  substances,  and  reduced  to  fixed  and 
certain  principles  their  descent  along  inclined  planes. 
He  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  also  to  hydrostatics 
and  to  hydraulics,  though  the  only  treatise  Avhich  he 
Avrotc  about  them  is  that  comprised  in  some  corres- 
pondence concerning  the  OA^erfloAV  of  the  river  Bisen- 
tio,  near  Florence. 

In  the  course  of  a  recent  debate  in  the  French 
Chamber  of  Deputies  it  Avas  alleged  that  Galileo  had 
never  been  persecuted,  but  Signer  Domenico  Berti 
has  published  an  official  report  of  his  trial,  Avith  the 
documents  preserved  in  the  State  archives  at  Rome. 

After  his  first  summons  to  Bome  Galileo,  as  I  said 
above,  Avrote  the  "  Dialogue  upon  the  two  principal 
Systems  of  the  World,"  those  of  Ftolemy  and  Coper- 
nicus, and  this  takes  the  form  of  a  conversation  in 


262  FLORENCE. 

Avliicli  defunct  personages,  including  one  Salviati,  a 
Florentine  friend  of  Galileo's,  discuss  tlieir  own  doc- 
trines and  those  of  tlieir  opponents,  the  conclusion 
(evidently  dictated  by  fear  of  the  Inquisition,  which 
had  acquitted  him  with  a  severe  w^arning)  being  that 
it  Avas  best  not  to  pronounce  definitely  as  to  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Avorld. 

Three  copies  of  the  ^^  Dialogues,"  which  were 
printed  at  Florence,  found  their  way  to  Rome,  and 
being  brought  to  the  notice  of  Urban  VIIL,  that  pon- 
tiff manifested  great  displeasure,  and  summoned 
Galileo  to  appear  a  second  time  in  Rome ;  failing 
Avhich,  ^^  a  doctor  and  a  commissioner  of  the  Holy 
Office  would  repair  to  Florence  at  his  expense,  have 
him  arrested,  and  brought  to  Rome  in  chains.''  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Galileo's  courage  gave  way,  and 
on  Jime  22,  1633,  he  read  his  recantation  in  the 
church  of  Sta  Maria  Sopra  Minerva.  Three  out  of  the 
ten  judges,  including  the  Pope's  own  nephew,  ab- 
stained from  signing  the  sentence,  which,  moreover, 
never  received  the  Papal  ratification. 

The  following  is  an  authentic  translation  of  the  in- 
structions for  his  trial : — ^^  Galileo  must  be  interro- 
gated as  to  his  intentions,  under  threat  of  torture  ac 
si  SKsfinuerify  be  made  to  abjure  at  a  plenary  sitting 
of  the  Holy  Office  doctrines  strongly  tainted  with 
heresy,  condemned  to  a  term  of  imprisonment  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  Holy  Congregation,  and  enjoined 
never  at  any  futiu'e  time,  either  by  word  or  by  writ- 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  208 

iiig,  to  say  anytliing  about  tlio  motion  (»f  tlic  c.irtli 
and  the  fixity  of  tlio  sun,  under  pain  of  frcsli  punisli- 
ment."  It  should  be  added  tliat,  notwithstanding  all 
that  has  been  written  by  Signor  Bcrti,  M.  ]\reziL'res, 
and  others,  we  have  no  certain  proof  as  to  whether 
or  not  Galileo  was  put  to  the  torture  ;  and  M.  Jules 
Loiseleur  has  recently  argued,  with  much  show  of 
plausibility,  that  he  was  not.  The  words  ac  si  sus- 
tinucrit  may  be  used  in  either  sense,  for  while  one 
side  applies  them  to  the  torture  itself  {''  if  he  can  bear 
it,"  argues  Signer  Berti),  the  partisans  of  Urban 
VIII.  interpret  them  as  meaning  "  if  he  persists." 

The  conclusion  of  the  judgment  runs:  "And  as  it 
appeared  to  us  that  you  had  not  spoken  the  Avliole 
truth,  we,  knowing  your  intention,  have  deemed  it 
meet  to  make  a  rigorous  examination  of  von  {rigor- 
osiim  examen  tui),  in  which  you  have  replied  prop- 
erly, leaving  out  of  the  question  those  things  which 
you  have  confessed  and  those  Avhich  have  been  de- 
duced against  you  above  relative  to  the  said  inten- 
tion." 

M.  Loiseleur  says  that  Galileo  had  not  the  stuff  of 
a  martyr  in  him,  and  that  in  all  his  answers  he  shows 
a  spirit  of  ready  submission.  If  so  we  must  suppose 
that  the  famous  exclamation,  "  E  pur  si  muove,"  is 
only  a  legend  ;  but  whether  we  take  the  side  oi'  the 
Church  or  that  of  science,  it  is  painful  to  think  that 
this  old  man,  whose  life  had  been  spent  in  the  search 
after  truth,  should,  wdien  his  frame  was  too  weak  to 


264  FLOKENCE. 

endure  physical  torture^  have  undergone  such  moral 
torture  as  to  repudiate  the  doctrines  in  which  he  had 
placed  a  lifelong  faith. 

OTTAVIO  KIXUCCIXI. 

(1550-1G21.) 

Ottavio  bore  a  name  which  had  already  been  made 
famous  by  Filippo  Alamanno  Rinuccini,  who  was  one 
of  the  earliest  academicians  of  the  Ruccellai  Gardens, 
and  he  claims  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the  earliest 
composers  of  the  recitative  of  the  modern  opera,  or 
lyric  poem.  The  name  opera  was  not  given  until 
later,  but  in  1580,  at  the  festivals  to  celebrate  the 
marriage  of  Ferdinand,  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany, 
with  Princess  Christine  of  Lorraine,  he  Avrote  the 
verses  for  five  musical  interludes,  the  subject  being 
the  victory  of  Apollo  over  the  Python.  In  order  to 
connect  the  various  musical  parts,  composers  went 
back  to  the  melopoea  of  the  ancients,  and  the  name 
of  "  recital "  is  still  given  to  it  in  Italy. 

He  made  a  further  step  forward  in  the  "  Pastoral 
of  Daplmr^^^  which  was  represented  in  the  Corsi 
Palace  before  the  leading  members  of  Florence 
society.  He  next  wrote  Eioydice,  which  he  himself 
styled  a  ^^  Tragedia  per  Musica,"  and  this  opera  was 
given  with  great  pomp  and  splendor  at  the  marriage 
rejoicings  of  Henri  IV.  and  Maria  de'  Medici. 

Ottavio  owed  much  to  the  patronage  of  this  prin- 
cess, who  induced  him  to  come  to  the  French  Court  j 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  265 

but  Ids  new  mode  ef  life  was  so  distasteful  to  him 
that  he  soon  returned  to  Florenee,  where,  in  1008, 
lie  wrote  Ariadne  at  Naxos  for  the  weddinj^  of  Gon- 
zaga,  Prince  of  Mantua,  and  the  Infante  ^largaret  of 
Savoy. 

The  form  of  these  poems  is  perfect,  and  the  verses 
go  very  well  to  music,  while  there  is  more  passion 
and  life  in  them  than  in  the  somewhat  artificial  com- 
positions of  Quinault. 

Besides  these  lengthy  works,  Rinuccini  composed 
some  very  clever  Anacreontic  odes  in  the  Concetti 
style,  and  he  was  much  appreciated  in  the  best  society 
of  Florence  for  his  ever-ready  wit. 

He  was  collecting  his  works,  with  the  intention  of 
dedicating  them  to  Louis  XIII.  of  France,  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  and  his  son,  Piero  Francesco,  completed 
the  task. 

This  brings  to  a  close  the  list  of  the  men  who  con- 
tributed the  most  to  the  propagation  of  the  new  ideas: 
for  the  seventeenth  century  belongs  to  the  modern 
era,  Avhich  cannot  be  treated  of  here.  Moreover,  the 
supremacy  of  Florence  declined  after  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  and  in  the  next  chapter  I  shall  speak  of  the 
art  to  which  that  supremacy  was  due. 


266  FLOKENCE. 


CHAPTER    V. 

ETRUSCAN  ART. 

Long  before  giving  to  the  world  the  spectacle  of 
the  splendid  development  of  art  and  civilization  which 
I  have  endeavored  to  describe,  Tuscany  had  been  in 
these  respects  a  very  favored  land. 

More  than  a  thousand  years  before  our  era  the  soil 
of  Tuscany  was  occupied  by  the  Etruscans,  a  mys- 
terious people  whose  origin  has  never  been  clearly 
ascertained  by  the  historian  or  the  archaeologist. 
Whether,  as  has  been  variously  argued,  Greek, 
Phoinician,  German,  Iberian,  or  Celtic,  the  race 
which  peopled  Etruria,  and  settled  between  the  Tiber 
and  the  Arno  in  the  tenth  century  B.C.,  showed  a 
special  instinct  for  art,  and  left  upon  all  the  objects 
of  its  creation  so  ori^'inal  a  mark  that  its  stvle  is  the 
easiest  to  identify  of  all  those  which  the  archaeologists 
have  exhumed. 

Mommsen,  Niebuhr,  and  Ottfried  Muller  have  each 
given  their  views,  accepted  by  some  and  rejected  by 
others  j  Michelet  says  that  the  ^^  genius  of  history  is 
dumb,"  and  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis  comes  to  the 
somewhat  sweeping  conclusion  that  ^^  all  the  search- 
ing investigations  of  modern  savants  as  to  the  primi- 


ETRUSCAN  ART.  267 

tive  liistoiy  of  the  Pelasgi,  the  Siculi,  the  Tliyrrlif-n- 
ians,  the  Aborigines,  the  Latins,  and  other  natl(jnal 
races  are  as  devoid  of  any  solid  foundation  as  the 
study  of  judicial  astrology,  the  discovery  of  the  phi- 
losopher's stone,  or  the  elixir  of  life." 

Be  this  as  it  may,  Etruria  ^y[^s  the  cradle  of  Italian 
art,  and  a  work  on  the  art  and  civilization  of  that 
country  Avhich  goes  back  to  the  earliest  times  would  not 
be  complete  without  some  notice  of  the  first  Etruscan 
monuments.  These  are  believed  to  date  from  tlie 
close  of  the  tenth  century  B.C.,  and  the  many  speci- 
mens of  them  which  are  to  be  seen  in  the  different 
museums  have  all  the  conventionality  of  Egyptian  art, 
a  circumstance  Avhich  may  perhaps  be  accounted  for 
by  the  trade  Avhich  Etruria  carried  on  with  the  East. 

Etruscan  art,  however,  was  personal,  so  to  speak, 
while  that  of  Egypt,  on  the  contrary,  was  immutable, 
and  subject  to  certain  rites,  religious  prescriptions, 
mathematical  laws,  and  immovable  canons.  The 
Etruscan  sought  to  imitate  nature,  while  the  Egyp- 
tian covered  the  human  anatomy  with  an  inanimate 
surface  of  porphyry  or  granite  which  gave  no  clue 
to  the  life  beneath.  The  Etruscan  was  at  infinite 
pains  to  reproduce  the  muscles,  the  veins,  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  hair,  and  the  folds  of  the  loose 
draperies. 

There  are  fcAv  large  monuments  left  in  Etruria, 
especially  of  the  first  period,  though  souie  walls  of 
colossal  proportions   like   those   at  Eiesule,  and  lofty 


268  FLORENCE. 

gates  like  those  of  Perugia — one  of  the  best-pre- 
served monuments  in  Italy — may  still  be  seen^  be- 
longing to  a  period  in  which  Greek  influence  is  very- 
visible.  The  first  Etruscan  style  lasted  until  the 
third  century  of  Rome^  after  which  it  underwent  a 
modification  and  became  the  Tuscan  style,  contem- 
porary with  that  of  ^gina  and  Greece,  while,  five 
centuries  after  the  foundation  of  Rome,  Greek  art 
had  acquired  so  complete  a  monopoly  that  it  was  to 
be  traced  in  all  Etruscan  constructions  of  the  time. 
One  of  the  most  important  Etruscan  towns,  Veii, 
succumbed  in  the  year  396  B.C.  to  Rome,  and  in  283 
B.C.  the  battle  of  Vadimo  brought  about  the  complete 
subjugation  of  the  Etruscan  nation  by  Rome.  The 
superposition  of  these  two  civilizations  may  be  seen 
close  to  Florence,  at  Fiesole,  on  the  slope  of  the 
mountain  upon  which  the  Roman  amphitheatre  is 
built,  for  hard  by  this  building,  with  its  classic  lines,  is 
the  colossal  Etruscan  wall,  which  seems  strong  enough 
to  prop  up  the  mountain,  and  whose  enormous  layers, 
placed  one  upon  another  without  mortar,  with  the 
edges  as  square  as  if  it  had  been  built  yesterday,  tell 
us  of  this  people  whose  origin  has  remained  an  enigma 
for  scholars  of  every  age. 

Etruscan  art  j)roduced  vases,  mirrors,  jewels, 
statues  of  great  size  and  beautiful  style,  and  scarce 
as  they  now  are,  great  numbers  of  sarcophagi,  disci, 
arms,  etc.,  and  tables  engraved  with  inscriptions ; 
and  an  astonishing  number  of  grotesques  are  fomid 


ETRUSCAN  ART.  269 

in  the  excavations,  and  are  exhibited  in  the  various 
museums  of  Europe  under  the  names  of  "  Obesi,'^ 
and  '^  Pingues  Etrusci."  The  Etruscans  excelkd  in 
bronze  work,  and  tliere  can  be  no  more  admiraljle 
specimen  of  it  than  the  ''  Chimsera  '^  in  the  Uffizi 
Gallery,  with  an  inscription  upon  its  foot.  Tlie  ^'  She- 
Wolf"  in  the  Capitol  at  Rome  also  shows  a  complete 
knowledge  of  the  structure  of  those  animals.  Perkins, 
in  his  work  on  ^^  Tuscan  Sculptors,"  attributes  this 
proficiency  of  the  Etruscans  to  their  habit  of  oftering 
sacrifices,  and  of  seeing  animals  immolated  by  the 
augurs. 

It  seems  incj-edible  that  we  should  not  have  one  of 
those  triumphal  bronze  statues,  which  Avcre  so  numer- 
ous that  after  the  capture  of  Yolsinii  the  Romans 
carried  off  two  thousand.  Some  of  them  were  of 
gigantic  size,  and  a  fragment  shown  by  M.  Eugene 
Piot  in  the  retrospective  exhibition  at  Paris  in  1878 
is  believed  to  belong  to  what  we  may  call  the  Etrusco- 
Greek  period. 

The  Vatican  Museum  is  very  rich  in  objects  be- 
longing to  this  period,  and  though  the  Uffizi  Gallery 
has  not  so  many,  it  contains  in  addition  to  the 
"Chimsera,"  the  "Orator"  (Arringatorc),  which  is 
the  most  perfect  specimen  of  its  kind.  The  excava- 
tions commenced  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  carried 
on  with  varying  ardor  ever  since,  have  brought  to 
light  riches  now  dispersed  throughout  Europe,  and 
the  supply  is  still  far  from  being  exhausted.      The 


270  FLORENCE. 

towns  of  Coreto,  Chiusi,  Toscanelkj  Volterra,  Yeii, 
Coere,  Castel  d'Asso,  Norchia,  Viilci,  Bomarzo,  Fie- 
sole,  and  Perugia  have  helped  more  than  any  others 
by  the  excavations  made  in  them,  to  make  us  under- 
stand the  different  phases  of  this  civilization.  The 
first  style  denotes  a  tendency  to  imitate  nature  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  dawn  of  art,  since,  in  re- 
producing what  they  saw,  the  Etruscans  took  only 
the  main  lines.  Simplifying  the  shapes,  the  outUnes 
of  figures,  the  draperies,  and  the  anatomy  of  men  or 
animals,  they  gave  a  really  lofty  tone  to  their 
creations. 

The  second  manner  still  reveals  their  want  of  sci- 
ence, for  in  their  anxiety  to  express  action  and  motion 
these  primitive  artists  overdid  it,  thus  hurting  the 
effect.  Those  writers  wdio  have  examined  with  care 
specimens  of  Etruscan  painting  and  sculpture  ascribe 
the  first  style  to  the  influence  of  Egyptian  art,  while 
the  second  has  much  in  common  with  the  art  of  the 
island  of  ^gina.  Long  before  the  time  of  our  modern 
archa3ologists  and  the  scholars  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, Strabo,  who  had  travelled  in  Egypt  and  Etruria, 
observed  these  points  of  similitude,  varied,  however, 
by  the  special  characteristics  which  confer  upon  the  ar- 
tists of  Etruria  their  unquestionable  originality.  The 
Etruscans  excelled,  moreover,  in  giving  to  the  objects 
which  they  reproduced  their  natural  color.  Admir- 
able proofs  of  this  may  be  seen  in  many  of  the  mu- 
semns. 


ETRUSCAN  ART.  271 

The  Greeks^  Avhen  in  the  year  212  B.C.  they  in- 
vaded Italy  after  the  capture  of  Syracuse,  found  the 
people  of  Etruria  readily  accessible  to  their  ideas  iu 
regard  to  art,  and  Greek  influence  is  apparent  in  the 
works  of  the  ^gina  period.  From  this  resulted  a 
new  and  more  perfect,  but  less  original  style,  and  the 
national  element  soon  disappeared  altogether. 

It  is  from  this  Etrusco-Greek  period  that  date  the 
masterpieces  in  the  Gregorian  Museum,  the  Vatican, 
and  most  of  those  in  the  Uffizi,  including  the  bronze 
^'Cestus"  in  the  Kirchcr  Museum. 

Skilful  in  the  manipulation  of  metals,  in  the  cast- 
ing of  bronze  armor,  in  die-sinking,  or  in  the  carv- 
ing of  applied  figures  upon  metals  or  stuffs,  Etruscan 
artists  supplied  nations  more  advanced  than  their 
own  in  civilization,  with  their  works,  which  were 
highly  appreciated  even  at  Athens.  There  is  one- 
point  which  has  never  been  cleared  up — how  it  was 
that  after  becoming  the  purveyors  of  nations  wealthy 
enough  to  indulge  in  all  the  refinements  of  luxury, 
the  Etruscan  artists,  instead  of  applying  their  talents 
to  the  production  of  every  kind  of  plastic  work,  such 
as  armor,  marbles,  elegant  furniture  and  jewellery, 
multiplied  by  some  industrial  method  innumerable 
specimens  of  the  same  object  or  the  same  jewel, 
creating  a  specialist  for  each  of  these  departments. 
Thus  was  first  brought  into  existence  what  we  now 
call  "  art  applied  to  industry,"  resulting  in  the  pro- 
duction of  objects  less  perfect  in  taste,  but  neverthe- 


272  FLORENCE. 

less  imbued  with  that  delicacy  of  conception  common 
to  all  the  Avorks  of  art  in  those  days.  The  foreign 
influences  which  are  to  be  traced  in  Etruscan  art  are 
not  mere  vague  resemblances  of  shape  or  aspect,  for 
live  centuries  before  Christ,  and  two  hundred  and  five 
years  after  the  foundation  of  Rome,  the  Etruscans 
coined  gold  and  silver  money  after  the  model  of  the 
coins  current  in  Attica  and  Asia  Minor,  while  a  cen- 
tury before,  when  in  constant  communication  with 
the  inhabitants  of  Cumse,  the  Samians,  and  the  Rho- 
dians  of  Campania,  the  strange  spectacle  is  to  be  Avit- 
nessed  (as  may  be  easily  seen  from  an  examination 
of  their  objects  of  art)  of  a  whole  nation,  devoid  of 
any  heroic  traditions  of  its  own,  borrowing  those  of 
other  peoples,  and  representing  them  in  her  pictures 
and  sculptures.  This  adoption  of  foreign  myths 
caused  great  embarrassment  during  long  centuries  to 
the  students  of  Etruscan  lore,  who  did  not,  while  the 
science  of  archaeology  was  still  in  its  infancy,  know 
what  to  make  of  finding  an  episode  in  the  AVar  of 
the  Seven  Chiefs,  or  in  the  Fall  of  Troy,  in  the 
work  of  an  Etruscan  artist. 

What  gives  art  so  important  a  place  in  the  history 
of  civilization,  and  causes  it  to  have  such  a  hold  upon 
the  popidar  imagination,  is,  that  it  is  almost  insepa- 
rable from  history.  If  Herodotus,  writing  a  century 
before  the  foundation  of  Rome,  is  to  be  believed,  the 
Greeks  knew  nothing  of  Italy,  but  soon  afterwards 
Sicily  was  colonized  by  Greeks,  Naxos  being  the  first 


ETRUSCAN  ART.  273 

Greek  settlement  in  the  island.  The  influence  of 
Greece  gradually  extended,  but  Etruria  retained  her 
special  characteristics  until  she  became  fused  in  the 
Roman  Empire.  Then  a  fresh  civilization  engrafted 
itself  upon  the  older  one,  as  Ave  have  seen  in  the  case 
of  Fiesole,  Perugia,  and  other  towns. 

While  Rome  had  to  fight  for  her  own  independence 
and  existence,  art  was  confined  to  the  turning  of  the 
potter's  wheel,  or  to  making  a  basket  out  of  the  osiers 
by  the  riverside.  As  Cicero  says,  ''  Art  Avas  left  to 
the  strangers,  in  order  that  their  bondage  might  sit 
lighter  upon  them."  The  Temple  of  the  Gods  was 
not  yet  built ;  but  as  the  instinct  of  man  impelled 
him  to  offer  sacrifice  to  the  tutelary  divinities,  he 
sought  out  a  spot  devoted  to  prayer  to  which  he 
might  repair  only  for  devotional  purposes.  The 
Etruscans  taught  those  Avho  were  about  to  become 
their  masters  and  eliminate  their  nationality  alto- 
gether, how  to  build  the  cdJa  of  a  temple,  and  to  re- 
place their  rustic  dwellings,  roofed  with  green  boughs, 
by  those  Avater-tight  houses  Avhich  ultimately  became 
the  palace  and  the  villa.  The  Etruscan  artist  taught 
his  conqueror,  Avho  had  no  idea  of  Avhat  architecture 
meant,  the  graces  of  the  full  arch,  and  the  expres- 
sion "  Tuscan  architecture  "  became  a  familiar  one  in 
Rome,  pre  Availing  there  until  the  Greek  colonists  of 
Sicily  introduced  their  purely  Greek  decoration  in  the 
Temple  of  Ceres  (496  B.C.). 

I  do  not  propose  to  trace  the  development  of  the 
18 


274  FLOEEXCE. 

Roman  civilization,  which  followed  that  of  Etruria, 
modified,  it  is  true,  by  the  Greek  influence,  but  sud- 
denly cut  short  by  the  conquest.  I  merely  Avished 
to  indicate  the  origins  of  Tuscan  art,  leaving  others 
to  decide  whether  there  is  any  secret  analogy  between 
this  art,  which  passed  away  in  the  year  280  B.C.,  and 
that  which  came  into  existence  at  Florence  fifteen 
centuries  later.  Rivers  between  their  sources  and 
their  mouths  often  run  underground  and  escape  from 
our  notice,  but  we  know  where  to  look  for  their 
origins.  In  the  same  way  we  may  perhaps  discover 
in  the  Florentine  genius  of  Donatello  a  hidden  analogy 
with  Etruscan  art,  refined  by  a  new  civihzation.  It 
is  certain,  in  any  event,  that  Greek  art  left  an  in- 
delible impress  upon  Tuscany,  and  after  the  terrible 
Barbarian  invasion  in  the  first  centuries  of  Christi- 
anity, and  after  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages,  it 
was  once  more  Greek  influence  which  brought  about 
that  Renaissance  which  had  its  centre  and  highest 
personification  in  Florence. 

AVhenEtruria  was  conquered,  Etruscan  art,  already 
modified  by  the  introduction  of  Greek  art,  lost  its 
individuality,  and  it  was  not  until  more  than  ten  cen- 
turies had  elapsed  that  the  various  arts  for  which  Italy 
Avas  famous  Avere  again  to  be  seen  in  their  natiA^e  places, 
brought  to  life  by  the  men  Avho  Avere  the  forerunners 
of  the  Renaissance.  In  order  to  trace  these  different 
artists,  to  observe  the  course  of  events,  and  to  imder- 
stand  hoAV  those  ancient  times  are  connected  Avith  our 


Dancing:  Boys. 

Donatelto. 


ETKUSCAX  ART.  275 

modern  age  atliwart  tlie  first  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian era  and  those  of  the  Middle  Ages,  down  to  about 
1200,  we  must  go  from  Tuscany  to  Rome,  in  turn  the 
political  centre  of  the  Republic,  the  residence  of  the 
emperors,  and  the  seat  of  the  Papal  power.  A  brief 
summary  of  the  principal  personages  will  make  the 
transition  clear,  and  show  the  affiliations  of  the  great 
artists  who  brought  about  the  Renaissance. 

Many  reasons  militated  against  the  creation  of  a 
national  school  at  Rome,  for  the  national  genius  of 
the  Romans  did  not  impel  them  to  the  cultivation  of 
art,  and,  caring  more  for  war,  politics,  and  legislation, 
they  even  passed  laws  forbidding  the  representation 
of  the  human  figure.  For  a  period  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  religion  was  altogether  spiritual,  but  King 
Numa,  who  had  legislated  in  this  matter,  accorded  his 
protection  to  the  foreign  colony  of  Greek  and  Etrus- 
can artists  ;  and  corporations  of  goldsmiths,  and  of 
workers  in  bronze,  terra-cotta,  etc.,  were  formed.  The 
elder  Tarquin,  wishing  to  erect  a  temple  to  Jupiter 
Capitolinus,  infringed  the  laws  of  Xuma,  and  intrusted 
the  execution  of  the  statue  to  Vidcanius,  an  artist  of 
Veii.  Then  followed  five  centuries  of  stagnation,  in 
the  course  of  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  mention 
the  name  of  a  single  Roman  sculptor  as  gifted  as 
Mamurius  Vetturius,  whom  Numa  employed  to  make 
the  eleven  copies  of  tlie  "'  Ancyle,"  or  sacred  shield, 
which  fell  from  heaven  during  the  pestilence.* 
*  See  note  on  the  lily  as  the  emblem  of  Florence,  p.  12. 


276  FLORENCE. 

It  was  the  Roman  conquests  which  favored  the 
development  of  the  arts  of  statuary  and  painting, 
the  vanquished  imposing  their  tastes  upon  the  vic- 
tors. The  great  Roman  commanders,  Marcelhis, 
Quintus  Fabius,  Scipio  Africanus,  Titus  Flaminius, 
Lucius  Paulus,  and  Mummius,  brought  back  to  Rome 
the  trophies  taken  in  Sicily,  Macedonia,  and  Cam- 
pania, and  when  Corinth  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Romans  they  secured  art  treasures  which  served  as 
models  for  their  own  artists. 

The  love  of  art  gradually  became  more  general, 
and  each  citizen  was  anxious  to  have  in  his  house 
likenesses  of  himself,  of  his  ancestors,  and  of  his 
gods,  and  as  the  native  painters  and  sculptors  were 
neither  numerous  enough  nor  clever  enough,  artists 
from  Greece  found  ample  employment.  In  course  of 
time  wealthy  amateurs  gave  an  additional  stimulus  to 
art  by  their  liberal  purchases  of  pictures,  statues,  and 
stone  engravings  *,  and  as  the  demand  creates  the 
supply,  there  also  came  into  existence  plenty  of 
clever  forgers  who  imitated  the  names  of  successful 
artists  on  the  pedestal  of  a  statue  or  in  the  corner  of 
a  fresco. 

This  was  the  epoch  of  Terentius  Varro ;  of  the 
refined  LucuUus  ;  of  Yerres,  whom  Cicero  denounced 
in  such  scathing  terms  ;  of  Agrippa,  who  in  the  course 
of  one  year  provided  Rome  with  a  hundred  fountains 
surrounded  by  statues  ;  and  of  ^milius  Scaurus,  who 
constructed  a  theatre   for  the  celebration  of  public 


ETRUSCAN  ART.  277 

games  which  was  ornamented  with  three  thousand  mar- 
ble statues.  Julius  Caesar  was  very  fond  of  bronzes, 
marbles,  and  stone  carvings ;  Mecsenas  has  lent  his 
name  to  the  patrons  of  art  in  all  ages  and  in  all  coun- 
tries ;  Pompej  was  an  indefatigable  collector  of  stone 
carvings  ;  and  the  taste  for  these  things  became  gen- 
eral throughout  Italy. 

The  Rome  of  the  Caesars  did  much  for  art,  and  the 
age  of  Augustus  rivals  that  of  Pericles.  The  monu- 
ments of  that  period,  many  of  Avhicli  still  survive, 
bear  the  double  impress  of  grandeur  and  elegance, 
and  testify  to  the  genius  of  their  creators.  There  is 
a  vast  difference,  hoAvever,  between  the  Greeks  and 
the  Romans,  for  while  the  former  represent  the 
supreme  type  of  beauty  and  give  a  stamp  of  distinc- 
tion to  all  they  touch,  the  latter,  though  their 
works  are  massive  and  imposing,  lack  grace  in  the 
details.  When  the  heaviness  which  is  characteristic 
of  their  style  disappears,  we  may  be  sure  that  a  Greek 
has  had  a  hand  in  the  work. 

The  whole  of  this  period  was  a  brilliant  one,  and 
traces  of  it  are  still  visible  not  only  in  Rome  itself, 
but  throughout  Italy,  and  even  along  the  coast  of  the 
Adriatic  and  the  banks  of  the  Danube.  Roman  art, 
coming  into  existence  with  the  first  of  the  emperors, 
died  with  the  last  of  them,  while  each  successive  ruler 
left  upon  it  the  impress  of  his  own  personal  tastes. 
Tiberius,  Caligula,  and  Nero  blended  Greek  and  Roman 
art  by  the  importation  of  the  great  works  of  Olympia 


278  FLORENCE. 

and  the  five  liimdred  statues  taken  from  tlie  Temple 
of  Apollo  at  Delphi ;  and  Titus  employed  Greek  artists 
for  the  bas-reliefs  of  his  triumphal  arch. 

The  column  of  Trajan,  erected  to  commemorate 
his  victory  over  the  Daci,  affords  an  irrefutable  proof 
of  the  genius  of  Roman  artists,  for  the  style  of  this 
monument  is  clear,  concise,  and  free  from  any  nebu- 
lous allegories.  If  this  Roman  school  had  lasted 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  genius  of  the  people 
would  have  developed  distinct  national  characteristics 
devoid  of  all  foreign  influences,  which  would  have 
been  transmitted  down  to  our  own  day  with  no  other 
changes  save  those  brought  about  by  historical  cir- 
cumstances ;  but  a  nation  which  rules  the  world  must 
inevitably  be  affected  in  some  way  by  the  peoples 
whom  it  has  subjugated,  and  the  genius  of  Rome 
bears  the  constant  impress  of  the  influence  of  the 
East. 

The  Emperor  Hadrian,  who  was  a  passionate  ad- 
mirer of  Greece  and  Egypt,  and  who  brought  to  Rome 
a  great  number  of  Greek  artists,  prided  himself  upon 
being  at  once  architect,  sculptor,  and  painter,  and 
was  very  jealous  of  all  rivals.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Antoninus,  who  cared  but  little  for  art,  and 
then  came  Marcus  Aurelius,  of  whom  there  still  exists 
an  equestrian  statue  Avhicli  is  a  very  good  S2')ecimen 
of  the  Roman  school,  though  it  Avas  executed  by  an 
artist  of  Greek  nationality. 

Roman  art,  which  had   reached  its  zenith  under 


ETEUSCAN  ART.  279 

Trajan,  began  to  decline  under  Cumniodus,  and  it  is 
interesting  to  follow  this  decadence  in  tlie  colmini 
erected  hy  the  latter  to  ^larcus  Aureliiis, — whicli  is 
a  rude  imitation  of  the  Trajan  Column, — in  the  arch 
of  Septimius  Severus,  and  in  that  of  Constantine, 
the  sculptures  of  which  date  from  the  time  of  Trajan. 
Constantine  consummated  the  ruin  of  Roman  art,  and 
when  he  transferred  the  capital  of  the  Empire  to 
Byzantium  he  took  with  him  all  the  greatest  artists 
of  the  dav,  their  departure,  as  Winckelman  observes, 
leaving  what  had  until  then  been  the  capital  of  the 
world  a  very  desert. 


280  FLOKENCR 


CHAPTER    YI. 

CHRISTIAN  ART. 

With  the  development  of  the  new  truths  which 
folloAved  the  birth  of  Christ,  Christian  art  came  into 
being,  but  from  a  natural  and  even  superstitious  aver- 
sion for  heathen  mythology,  it  avoided  anything 
which  symbolized  those  myths,  and  this  abhorrence 
of  the  productions  of  ancient  art  led  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  an  immense  number  of  priceless  works.  The 
statues  of  the  gods  were  broken  in  pieces  ;  the  im- 
ages, the  bas-reliefs,  the  temples,  the  friezes,  and 
the  marble  tablets,  with  their  historical  inscriptions, 
were  destroyed ;  and  the  worshippers  of  the  new 
God  were  eager  to  sweep  away  all  vestiges  of  those 
deities  whom  their  ancestors  had  adored. 

After  the  birth  of  Christ  the  arts  of  painting  and 
sculpture  stood  still,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century  were  no  more  advanced  than  they  had 
been  twelve  hundred  years  before.  Palm-branches, 
hearts,  triangles,  fishes,  and  monograms  were  en- 
graved upon  the  tombs  of  the  catacombs,  and  the 
efforts  to  represent  the  Divine  form  in  painting  were 
ludicrously  primitive.  Not  imtil  an  emperor  had 
been  converted  to  Christianity  was  any  improvement 


CHRISTIAN  ART.  281 

noticeable,  and  when  a  Christian  died  at  Rome  he  was 
frequently  buried  in  a  sarcophagus  which  had  been 
made  hundreds  of  years  before. 

The  sarcophagus,  in  fact,  was  the  connecting-link 
between  ancient  and  modern  art,  and  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  a  Medici  taking 
an  ancient  sarcophagus  for  the  interment  of  one  of 
his  relatives,  and  having  the  family  arms  carved  upon 
it.  For  a  long  time  the  ecclesiastical  ordinances  pre- 
vented the  development  of  sculpture  and  painting, 
and  up  to  the  sixth  century  a  very  strict  supervision 
was  exercised  over  the  choice  of  subjects. 

In  the  sixth  century,  when  the  recollection  of  the 
idols  had  grown  faint,  the  fathers  of  the  Church  per- 
mitted three  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Passion  to  be 
represented,  while  eighty  years  later  permission  was 
given  to  illustrate  all  the  others. 

The  history  of  art  during  the  six  centuries  between 
the  fifth  and  the  eleventh  may  be  read  upon  the  re- 
ligious monuments.  The  great  crusade  preached  by 
the  Emperor  Leo  of  Isaura  and  Constantino  Copro- 
nymos  against  the  worship  of  images  (Iconology, 
72G-754)  led  to  a  mighty  immigration  of  artists  into 
the  West,  where,  however,  Byzantine  art  was  already 
firmly  established,  and  where  its  influences  were  not 
thrown  off  until  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
This  period  is  termed  the  Italian-Byzantine,  or 
Romanesque.  In  the  meanwhile  all  Europe  was 
passing  through  the  terrors  of  the  year  1000,  when, 


989 


FLOKENCE. 


according  to  predictions  universally  believed,  tlie 
world  was  to  come  to  an  end.  All  art,  and  even  busi- 
ness, was  suspended,  but  when  the  time  passed,  and 
the  prophecy  was  proved  to  be  groundless,  the  peo- 
ple, in  their  gratitude  to  heaven,  erected  churches  in 
all  directions,  thus  giving  a  fresh  impulse  to  sculpture 
and  painting. 

In  future  there  was  no  line  of  separation  between 
the  architect  and  the  sculptor,  and  for  two  hundred 
years  there  is  no  record  of  any  name  among  the 
hosts  of  artists  who  worked  at  the  porches,  the  pil- 
larSj  the  naves,  and  arches  of  the  great  cathedrals. 
The  sculptor  was  regarded  as  a  mere  stone-cutter. 

The  distinctive  mark  of  this  period  was  the  carv- 
ing of  diabolic  and  grotesque  figures,  in  which  were 
blended  an  expression  of  faith  and  simplicity  recalling 
the  primitive  age  of  art.  Even  at  this  comparatively 
late  period  the  artists  who  executed  these  great 
works  evidently  carried  out  fundamental  laws  laid 
down  by  a  higher  authority. 

Pisa  affords  a  boundless  field  of  study  as  to  the 
transition  from  pagan  to  Christian  art.  Beneath  the 
spacious  porticos  of  its  Campo  Santo  we  see  sarcoph- 
agi dating  from  the  period  when  Pisa  was  one  of 
the  most  important  colonies  of  Imperial  Rome,  Avhile 
there  are  others  which  have  been  brought  there  from 
the  East,  from  Sicily,  and  from  Calabria,  and  which 
date  from  the  Middle  Ages.  In  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries   the  people  of  Pisa,  Avhile  building 


CHRISTIAN  ART.  283 

the  Duomo  and  Leaning  Tower,  Avliicli  attract  so  many 
visitors  to  their  city,  used  for  the  decoration  of  the 
exterior  these  sarcophagi,  the  sculptures  of  which, 
much  as  they  admired  them,  they  were  unable  to 
copy.  The  highest  honor  they  could  pay  any  great 
personage  at  his  death  was  to  bury  him  in  one  of 
them,  and  the  Countess  Beatrice  mother  of  the  famous 
Countess  Matilda,  and  Pope  Gregory  YIII.,  who  died 
at  Pisa  in  1187,  are  interred  in  two  of  these  ancient 
tombs.  Charlemagne  himself  is  buried  in  a  Roman 
sarcophagus  representing  the  interment  of  Proserpine, 
and  St.  Andreo  rests  in  that  which  formerly  con- 
tained the  body  of  Tiberius  Julius  Valerianus,  whose 
ashes  were  scattered  to  the  winds  by  the  Barbarians. 

The  sarcophagus,  therefore,  may  be  said  to  connect 
the  past  with  the  present — to  have  brought  about  the 
regeneration  of  sculpture  ;  and  when  Niccolo  Pisano's 
attention  was  struck  by  the  subjects  Avhich  ornamented 
them,  and  when  he  compared  the  movement,  the  life, 
and  the  anatomical  science  of  the  ancient  scidptors 
with  the  qualities  of  the  stone-cutters  employed  in 
the  construction  of  the  Duomo,  he  made  a  determined 
and  successful  effort  to  shake  off  the  trammels  of  By- 
zantine stiffness  and  the  narrow  principles  of  the  early 
Christian  period,  thereby  emancipating  Italian  art,  and 
founding. that  school  which  was  destined  to  regenerate 
the  whole  artistic  Avorld. 

Pisano,  who  played  as  prominent  a  part  in  sculp- 
ture as  Giotto  and  Dante  afterwards  did  in  painting 


284  FLORENCE. 

and  literature,  was  a  Tuscan,  so  that  the  art  which 
had  its  origin  in  Etruria  was  born  again  in  a  city  of 
the  Pelasgi,  within  a  few  miles  of  Florence  and  an- 
cient Fiesole. 


ARCHITECTUKE.  285 


CHAPTER    VII. 

ARCHITECTURE. 

It  is  difficult  to  separate  the  study  of  the  develop- 
ment of  art  among  a  people,  from  their  political  and 
social  history,  for  in  attempting  to  do  so  one  would 
fail  to  grasp  the  significance  of  the  successive  evolu- 
tions, as  may  be  clearly  seen  by  simply  comparing 
the  historical  facts  and  social  events  with  the  out- 
ward form  of  some  monument,  which  is  the  expres- 
sion of  a  particular  society  or  period. 

Having  thus  given  a  rapid  glance  at  the  transfor- 
mations of  art  in  Etruria,  so  as  to  see  what  were  the 
antecedents  of  Tuscany,  we  have  now  reached  the 
dawn  of  Gothic  art  (improperly  so  called),  remark- 
able for  the  unanimity  with  which  all  the  workers  are 
obedient  to  the  dictates  of  a  master  spirit  who  him- 
self remains  anonymous  for  us,  inspired  by  the  one 
thought  of  glorifying  Him  in  whose  honor  the  temple 
is  built. 

"We  are  upon  the  eve  of  the  desperate  struggle 
which  rent  Italy  for  nearly  two  centuries  ;  upon  the 
one  hand  the  Pope,  and  upon  the  other  the  Emperor, 
each  regarding  the  Peninsula  as  his  domain,  and 
each  representing  an  opposite  principle.     During  this 


286  FLORENCE. 

continuous  conflict  civil  and  military  architecture  came 
into  existence^  their  respective  forms  revealing  in  a 
striking  manner  the  troublous  circumstances  out  of 
which  they  were  evolved. 

The  most  ancient  monuments  of  Florence — those 
which  are  characteristic  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
and  retain  a  certain  unity,  despite  the  modifica- 
tions wdiich  time  has  effected — are  the  Baptistery 
of  San  Giovanni,  the  churches  of  Santa  Croce  and 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore^  the  Bargello,  and  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio. 

Though  Tuscany  gave  the  signal  for  the  move- 
ment which  brought  about  the  regeneration  of  art, 
the  first  important  work  was  carried  out,  not  at  Flor- 
ence itself,  but  at  Pisa,  where  the  Duomo,  erected  by 
Buschetto,  though  composed  in  part  from  antique  frag- 
ments of  the  most  various  kinds,  none  the  less  re- 
vealed, in  its  conception  and  shape,  new  tendencies 
and  aspirations. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Italy  at  no  time  be- 
came wholly  subservient  to  the  taste  for  Gothic  archi- 
tecture. With  the  examples  and  recollections  of 
ancient  art  before  her  eyes,  she  adhered  to  the  rules 
which  the  architects  of  an  earlier  age  had  laid  down, 
and  looked  upon  the  Gothic  system  as  one  of  parasitic 
ornamentation  which  had  been  grafted  on  to  the  main 
body  of  her  own  architecture. 

It  has  been  remarked  with  truth  that  the  cathedral 
of  Milan  and  the  upper  church  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi — 


Basilica  of  S.  Miniato. 


ARCHITECTUEE.  287 

the  onlj  strictly  Gothic  churches  in  Italy — were  built 
by  Germans,  Neither  those  of  Siena,  Arezzo,  and 
Orvicto,  nor  any  of  the  Florentine  churches  can,  near 
as  they  may  come  to  it,  be  spoken  of  as  Gothic,  so 
many  are  the  differences  in  design  and  shape.  In  the 
order  of  civil  architecture  the  granting  of  the  munic- 
ipal franchise  and  the  communal  power  brought 
about  a  new  style,  of  which  Florence  possesses  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  specimens. 

But  before  considering  this  point,  some  reference 
must  be  made  to 

THE  BASILICA  OF  SAN  MIXIATO. 

The  basilica  of  San  Miniato,  one  of  the  most  ven- 
erable monuments  in  Florence,  embedded  in  the  for- 
tress built  by  San  Marino,  is  of  great  architectural 
interest,  besides  being  an  ornament  to  the  city  of 
Florence,  of  which  a  splendid  view  may  be  had  from 
the  heights  of  Miniato  al  Monte,  the  ancient  ^^  King's 
]\Iountain,"  which  legend  says  derived  its  name  from 
an  Armenian  prince. 

There  was  formerly  an  oratory  dedicated  to  St. 
Peter  there,  built,  as  is  supposed,  in  the  third  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  and  this  oratory  having  fallen  into 
ruins  in  the  year  1013,  the  Emperor  lienr}-.  Queen 
Cunegonde — who  was  aftewards  canonized — and  Hil- 
debrand.  Bishop  of  Florence,  built  the  basilica  in  its 
present  shape.  While  the  building  was  in  progress 
the  body  of  San  Miniato  was  found  at  the  spot  where 


288  FLORENCE. 

the  Porta  Santa^  to  the  left  of  the  fagade,  now  stands, 
and  was  interred  beneath  the  high  allar. 

In  Italjj  as  in  other  countries,  there  is  always  some 
annex  for  the  dignitaries  and  staff  of  a  basilica,  who 
form  a  small  colony  gathered  around  the  mother 
establishment.  In  1295  Andrea  de  Mozzi,  Bishop  of 
Florence,  built  as  his  episcopal  residence  the  large 
crenellated  palace  which  adjoins  the  church  on  the 
southern  side.  Eicasoli,  the  successor  of  Mozzi  in 
the  see,  added  a  vast  dormitory,  the  campanile  of 
which  falling  down  in  1499,  was  rebuilt  in  1518  by 
Baccio  d'Agnola.  It  was  on  this  side  that  JMichael 
Angelo,  transformed  for  the  nonce  into  a  military 
engineer,  constructed  his  bastion  for  the  defence  of 
the  city,  and  placed  those  batteries  which  finally 
averted  the  enemy's  fire  and  saved  the  tower. 

The  noble  outlines  of  this  basilica  recall  those 
of  the  primitive  churches,  from  Avhich,  however, 
it  differs  very  much  in  respect  to  the  style  of 
its  ornamentation.  The  system  of  incrusting  the 
facades  of  buildings  with  marbles  of  different  colors, 
Avhich,  next  to  the  massive  Avails  of  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio,  and  the  solid  substructures  of  the  Strozzi 
and  Eiccardi  Palaces,  is  the  most  salient  feature  of 
the  Florentine  school,  had  its  origin  in  the  necessity  of 
using  in  building  and  ornament  the  materials  which 
lay  ready  to  hand.  The  neighborhood  of  Florence 
is  rich  in  quarries  of  different  colored  marbles,  so  that 
the  dome  of  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  the  proud  cam- 


ARCHITECTURE.  289 

panilc  of  Giotto,  the  Baptistery,  Santa  ]\[arla  Novella, 
and  the  faeades  of  the  other  principal  buildings  in 
Florence  naturally  contain  incrustations  of  variously 
colored  marbles,  arranged  according  to  the  fancy  of 
each  architect.  Additions  were  made  to  8an  Miniate 
in  each  succeeding  century,  a  scidptor  adding  a  group 
of  statuary  and  a  painter  designing  some  brilliant 
cartoon  ;  but  as  all  of  them  were  men  of  genius,  the 
homogeneousness  of  the  great  basilica  was  not  im- 
paired. 

The  interior,  in  every  respect  worthy  of  the  ex- 
terior, is  an  admirable  type  of  the  ancient  Latin 
basilica  with  its  nave  and  aisles  and  three  great 
arches  spanning  the  nave  and  choir.  The  altar  and 
chapel  of  the  crucifix  are  very  well  placed  for  deco- 
rative effect  between  two  grand  marble  staircases 
leading  up  to  the  tribune  and  choir.  This  picturesque 
chapel  was  built  by  Michelozzo  Michclozzi  for  Piero 
de'  Medici,  who  deposited  in  it  a  crucifix  supposed  to 
be  endowed  with  miraculous  power,  which  is  now  in 
the  church  of  Santa  Trinita.  The  most  striking 
feature  is  the  crypt  reached  by  a  short  flight  of  stairs, 
the  vaulted  roof  being  borne  up  by  thirty-six  marble 
columns.  In  the  centre  of  this  crypt,  now  used  as  a 
place  of  burial,  is  an  altar  beneath  which  repose  the 
remains  of  San  Miniato.  Keascending  the  stair- 
case, the  attention  is  caught  by  the  singular  arrange- 
ment of  the  bays  which  light  this  part  of  the  edifice. 
The  architect,  in  order  to  heighten  the  solemn  aspect 

19 


290  FLORENCE. 

of  this  spot^  employed  for  the  wmdows  a  transparent 
marble  which  filters  the  smi's  rajs  and  gives  them  a 
golden  tinge.  The  walls  of  the  choir  are  covered 
with  traces  of  decoration  of  a  very  ancient  period^ 
executed,  no  doubt,  by  Greeks  who  Avere  contem- 
poraries of  Turrita  and  Taffi.  The  beautiful  sacristy- 
is  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  it  was  constructed 
by  Nerozzo,  of  the  Alberti  family,  the  pictures  which 
it  contains  representing  episodes  in  the  life  of  St. 
Francis,  being  attributed  to  Spinello  Aretino. 

The  fifteenth  century  did  much  for  San  Miniato,  as 
it  was  then  that  Piero  de'  Medici  erected  the  chapel 
of  the  crucifix,  and  that  Bishop  Alvaro  dedicated  the 
chapel  where  are  deposited  the  remains  of  Jacopo  da 
Portogallo,  a  cardinal  who  died  in  Florence  at  the 
early  age  of  nine-and-twenty.  The  tomb,  like  the 
chapel  itself,  is  the  work  of  Bernardo  Gambcrelli^  sur- 
named  Rossellino  (see  chapter  on  Sculpture),  who  ar- 
ranged with  Luca  della  Robbia  for  the  ornamentation, 
and  the  effect  produced  by  the  combination  of  his 
marble  incrustations  Avith  the  terra-cottas  of  the  latter 
is  very  pleasing.  The  tomb  is  the  main  feature  in 
this  chapel,  and  it  may  be  regarded  as  only  inferior 
to  the  two  splendid  mausoleums  of  Santa  Croce,  the 
heavv  looped  curtains  which  fall  from  the  top  of  the 
arch  on  either  side  of  a  roundel  being  the  sole 
defect. 

The  church  of  San  Miniato  is  not  only  remarkable 
for  its  architectural  beauty,  but  it  lends  an  additional 


AKCIIITECTURE.  291 

cliarm  to  Florence,  the  vicAV  of  It  from  the  banks  of 
the  Arno  at  the  extremity  of  the  Cascine  being  very 
fine.  The  contrast  between  the  wooded  scenery  of 
the  park  and  tlie  mountain  covered  with  ancient 
buildings  is  most  striking,  and  from  afar  the  traveller 
approaching  Florence  beholds  above  the  battlements 
of  the  e[)isc()})al  palace  the  declivities  of  Monte  Mi- 
niate sloping  gently  down  towards  the  town.  A  wide 
piazza  with  terraces,  containing  among  other  statues 
a  bronze  copy  of  Michael  Angelo's  David,  is  reached 
by  the  beautiful  Viale  dei  Colli ;  and  farther  on, 
half  hidden  in  the  verdure,  is  the  quiet  little  church 
of  the  ^'  Reformed  Franciscans  "  of  8an  Salvador  al 
]\[onte,  which  ^Michael  Angelo  called  the  ''  Bella  \i\- 
lanella." 

Florence  is  paying  dearly  now  for  the  days  of  tri- 
umph Avliich  lasted  so  many  centuries  ;  but  the  aspect 
of  the  city,  with  its  domes,  its  towers,  its  overshadow- 
ing mountains,  its  rushing  river,  its  Cascine,  and  its 
innumerable  statues,  remains  as  impressive  as  ever. 
A  debt  of  gratitude  is  due  to  those  who,  in  attempt- 
ing to  embellish  her  when  she  became  the  capital  of 
New  Italy,  adhered  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  art  laid  down  by  the  Florentines  of  the  Re- 
naissance, endeavoring,  with  true  artistic  sense,  to 
establish  a  harmony  between  the  natural  aspect  of 
Florence  and  the  outlines  of  its  monuments. 


292  FLORENCE. 

THE  AECIIITECT  ARNOLFO  DI  CAMBIO. 
(1240-1310.) 
Both  arcliitect  and  sculptor,  Arnolfo  di  CamLio, 
better  known  in  the  history  of  art  as  Arnolfo  di  Lapo 
(because  it  was  for  a  long  time  supposed  that  he  was 
the  son  of  one  Lapo),  is  perhaps  the  Florentine  artist 
whose  work  was  in  its  original  form  the  most  import- 
ant, though  the  many  modifications  made  by  succeed- 
ing generations  have  somewhat  altered  its  character- 
istics. Ascending  the  eminence  upon  which  San 
Miniato  stands,  the  various  monuments  erected  by 
this  forerunner  of  Tuscan  architecture  are  all  dis- 
closed to  the  gaze — Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  the  Pa- 
lazzo Vecchio,  Santa  Croce,  Or  San  Michele,  and  the 
very  walls  which  formed  the  ramparts  of  the  city  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  Greater  artists  followed  in 
his  track,  and  made  alterations  in  accordance  with 
the  ideas  of  their  own  time,  but  many  of  them  adopted 
his  plans  and  carried  them  out  more  or  less  in  their 
entirety.  Arnolfo  was  born  in  1240*  at  CoUe  di 
Yaldelsa,  and  he  began  his  studies  in  the  studio 
of  Xiccolo  Pisano,  the  father  of  Tuscan  scidpture, 
where  he  had  as  a  fellow-student  John  of  Pisa. 

It  was  not  until  1274,  when  he  was  thirty-four 
years  of  age,  that  he  had  an  opportunity  of  showing 
what  he  could  do  on  his  own  accoimt.     He  had  spent 

^  With  regard  to  dates,  I  have  been  guided  by  the  most  recent 
publications,  which  differ  in  many  instances  from  those  of  Vasari, 
Cicognara,  and  other  art  historians. 


AKCHITECTUPvE.  293 

some  time  at  the  Court  of  Charles  of  Anjou  at  Naples, 
and  when  the  magistrates  of  Perugia,  Avho  had  com- 
missioned Niccolo  Pisano  to  erect  the  beautiful  foun- 
tain which  stands  on  the  square  of  that  city,  were 
anxious  to  procure  him  an  assistant,  it  was  to  that 
prince  that  they  applied  for  the  services  of  Arnolfo. 
The  correspondence  which  passed  is  still  extant,  and 
Adamo  Rossi,  the  learned  hbrarian,  has  recently  dis- 
covered documents  which  prove  that  he  received  a 
sum  of  ten  sols  a  day  for  his  services,  though  his 
name  does  not  appear  in  conjunction  Avith  those  of 
Kiccolo,  his  son  John,  and  Master  Posso. 

From  Perugia  he  went  to  Orvieto,  Avhere  he  carved 
the  tomb  of  Cardinal  William  de  Braye,  a  very  im- 
portant monument  in  the  history  of  art.  It  is  in  the 
Gothic  style,  and  is  held  to  be  one  of  the  best  pieces 
of  sculpture  of  the  period.  This  is  the  only  Avork 
which  we  know  for  a  certainty  to  be  his,  though  the 
Gothic  tabernacle  at  St.  Paul's  extra  muros  bears  his 
name  in  the  inscription,  and  that  of  a  companion 
simply  called  Piero.  The  tomb  of  Boniface  VIIL,  in 
the  crypt  of  St.  Peter's,  the  altar  of  St.  Boniface,  and 
the  tomb  of  Pope  Honorius  III.,  formerly  at  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore,  are  attributed  to  him  by  Vasari,  but 
other  writers,  whose  information  is  more  trustworthy, 
say  that  Toriti  and  one  of  the  Cosmati  executed  the 
last-named  work — a  statement  which,  fr(^m  my  own 
observations  during  a  recent  visit  to  Rome,  I  venture 
to  confirm. 


294  FLOEENCE. 

Arnolfo,  as  he  advanced  in  age,  abandoned  sculp't 
ture  for  architecture,  and  the  full  measure  of  his  genius 
is  to  be  seen  in  Santa  Croce,  the  Palazzo  Yecchio,  and 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore. 

The  Palazzo  Vecchio  was  begun  in  1299,  by  order 
of  the  Priors  who  stood  in  need  of  an  official  residence. 
It  has  often  been  stated  that  Arnolfo  used  designs  for 
this  building  prepared  many  years  before  by  Lapo ; 
which  simply  means  that  he  may  have  gotten  the 
idea  for  it  from  the  Castle  of  the  Conti  di  Poppi 
erected  by  the  latter  at  Casentino.  It  has  been  said, 
too,  that  Arnolfo  was  compelled  to  place  his  building 
upon  the  left  side  of  the  square,  so  as  not  to  occupy 
the  site  upon  which  the  house  of  the  Uberti,  destroyed 
upon  the  day  that  they  were  driven  from  Florence  by 
the  fury  of  the  people,  had  formerly  stood.  What- 
ever truth  there  may  be  in  these  legends,  it  is  beyond 
all  doubt  that  the  architect  Avas  instructed  to  include 
within  the  walls  of  the  palace  the  '^  Foraboschi,"  or 
^'  Delia  Vacca "  Tower,  as  it  was  more  familiarly 
called.  This  tower,  which  w^as  then  only  twenty-nine 
metres  in  height,  Arnolfo  raised  to  three  hundred  and 
thirty  feet,  widening  it  above  the  point  at  Avhich  it 
shot  up  from  the  new  building,  so  as  to  bring  it  into 
proportion  with  the  ])alace  itself. 

The  various  embellishments  and  clianges  made  by 
different  generations  in  this  monument  make  it  im- 
possible to  form  an  idea  as  to  its  appearance  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  when  the  Signoria  held  its  sittings 


ARCHITECTUKE.  295 

tlicrc,  l)nt  tlie  appearance  of  tlic  faeado,  apart  fiMiii 
tlic  sliape  of  the  windows  and  tlie  removal  of  the 
bars,  must  be  mucli  Avhat  it  was  then.  Tlicrc  is 
something  fierce  and  stern  about  the  aspect  of  this 
part  of  the  buikling,  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the 
time.  The  rugged  strength  of  the  hjwer  part  of  the 
edifice,  and  the  way  in  wliich  the  few  windows  near 
the  ground  are  protected  by  soHd  iron  bars,  like  the 
barbicans  of  a  fort,  tell  of  the  stormy  times  during 
which  it  was  in  turn  the  refuge  of  tyrants  and  of  the 
popular  Government  which  expelled  them,  in  the 
belfry  hung  the  great  bell  called  '^  La  Vacca,"  which 
summoned  the  corporations  to  arms,  headed  by  their 
district  captains  ;  the  battlements  symbolized  the  idea 
of  defence  5  and  between  the  brackets  of  each  was  the 
scutcheon  of  a  difterent  city  made  subject  to  Flor- 
ence. The  whole  of  this  fii9ade  is  symbolic,  and  it 
forms,  so  to  speak,  a  preface  to  the  history  of  the 
mcditeval  struggles  of  Florence. 

The  Piazza  della  Signoria  itself  sums  up  the  annals 
of  this  history  as  well  as  a  page  of  Machiavelli. 
Standing  in  front  of  the  palace  we  have  on  our  right 
the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi  and  the  UffizI,  and  to  the  left 
the  splendid  Ammanati  Fountain,  crowned  by  the 
genius  of  John  of  Ijologna  ;  the  equestrian  statue  of 
Cosimo  I.  ;  and  the  Uguccione  Palace,  which  was  for 
a  long  time  ascribed  to  Raphael.  The  Palazzo  Vec- 
chio  is  raised  a  few  steps  above  the  level  of  the  square  ; 
the  platform  before  the  entrance,  added  in  1349,  was 


29G  FLORENCE. 

called  the  ringluera.  It  Avas  from  here  that  the  Slg- 
noria  addressed  the  people^  and  that,  when  war  had 
been  declared,  the  commanders  and  the  rude  condot- 
tieri  whose  services  were  purchased  \>j  the  Italian 
republics  received  their  investitures.  It  was  from  the 
Ringliiera,  too,  that  the  important  decisions  arrived 
at  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  Florence  were  pro- 
claimed. The  northern  angle  is  still  marked  by  the 
famous  "  Marzocco,"  or  lion,  sculptured  by  Donatello, 
with  the  fleur-de-lis  scutcheon  between  his  paws.* 
The  colossal  group  of  Baccio  Bandinelli  stands  at  the 
other  extremity.  This  tribune  was  destroyed  in 
1812. 

The  ''  David  "  of  Michael  Angelo  stood  on  the  left 
of  the  entrance,  but  it  Avas  placed  under  cover  by  the 
present  Government,  and  a  copy  erected  in  the 
Piazza  approached  by  the  Yiale  dei  Colli,  one  of  the 
ncAV  2:»romenades  laid  out  at  the  time  that  Florence 
was  the  capital  of  Italy.  The  door  of  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio  is  very  remarkable.  BetAveen  the  tAvo  lions 
in  stone  is  a  slab  inscribed  Avith  the  monogram  of 
Christ  and  an  inscription,  Avliich  formerly  read, 
^^  Jesus  Christus,  Rex  Florentini  Populi.  S.  P.  De- 
creto  Electus  "  (Jesus  Christ,  King  of  the  Florentine 
people.  Elected  by  Decree),  but  AAdiich  Avas  changed 
by  Cosimo  I.  to  '^  Rex  Regum  et  Dominus  Dominan- 
tium." 

Clement  VIL,  of  the  Medici  family,  Avas  threaten- 

*  This  is  a  bronze  copy  ;  the  original  is  in  the  Bargello. 


ARCHITECTURE.  297 

ing  the  liberty  of  Florence,  and  XIcolo  Capponi,  who 
was  at  that  time  Gonfaloniere,  laid  before  the  8ig- 
noria  at  the  Palazzo  Vecchio  a  strange  proposition, 
which,  in  his  opinion,  would  preserve  the  inde})endence 
of  the  city.  Jesus  Christ  Avas  to  be  elected  King  of 
Florence,  and  llis  authority  the  Pope  himself  would 
not  dare  to  call  in  question.  The  Council  of  the 
Thousand  voted  this  singular  expedient  by  a  small 
majority,  and  the  inscription  was  placed  on  the  facade 
of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio. 

The  present  aspect  of  the  building  gives  no  idea 
of  what  it  was  like  in  the  time  of  Dante  and  of  the 
struggles  between  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  for  it  was 
partly  rebuilt  as  far  back  as  the  fifteenth  century. 
There  was  always,  however,  a  marked  contrast  be- 
tween the  rudeness  of  the  exterior  and  the  elaborate 
decoration  of  the  interior.  The  inner  courtyard, 
built  by  Arnolfo  di  Lapo,  was  altered,  with  the  ex- 
quisite taste  wdiicli  is  as  much  admired  now  as  it  was 
four  hundred  years  ago,  by  Michelozzo  Michelozzi  in 
1434,  the  decorations  being  completed  in  1565  for  the 
marriage  of  Francesco  de'  Medici  and  Jane  of  Austria 
by  the  execution  of  those  frescoes,  which  it  was  thought 
would  remind  the  young  princess  of  her  native  land. 
In  the  centre  is  an  exquisite  fountain  by  Tadda, 
adorned  with  an  animated,  laughing  boy  playing  with 
a  dolphin,  the  work  of  Yerrocchio,  deservedly  famous 
in  the  history  of  sculpture,  and  testifying  to  the  sup- 
ple talent  of  the  master,  who  was  also  the  sculptor  of 


298  FLOEENCE. 

the  bronze  statue  of  Colleoni  on  the  Piazza  San  Gio- 
vanni e  San  Paolo  at  Venice. 

It  is  always  pleasant  to  find  inscriptions  npon  the 
stones  of  a  monument,  as  it  prevents  any  possible 
confusion  between  men  and  things.  Michelozzi,  for 
instance,  decorated  the  '^  Cortile  "  in  1434,  and  yet 
the  embellishments  executed  at  the  marriage  of  Fran- 
cesco in  1565  are  often  attributed  to  him.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  this  was  not  the  work  of  one  man,  and  the 
inscription  beneath  the  portico  of  the  Palazzo  Vec- 
chio  gives  the  names  of  the  sculptors  even  of  the 
friezes  and  the  foliage :  Stephen  Vittori  da  Monte 
Sansovino,  Marco  da  Faenza,  and  Francesco  Salviati. 
The  beautiful  stuccoes  which  ornament  the  columns 
are  by  Peter  Paul  Minocci  of  Forli,  Leonardo  Ric- 
ciarelli  of  Volterra,  Sebastian  Tadda  of  Fiesole,  and 
Leonardo  Marignolli.  The  frescoes  of  towns,  though 
they  were  restored  in  1812,  are  almost  entirely 
effaced;  they  were  by  Sebastian  of  Verona,  John 
Lombardi  of  Venice,  and  Caesar  Baglioni.  The  in- 
terior of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  now  used  for  municipal 
purposes,  contains  some  fine  relics  of  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  some  splendid  frescoes  of  which 
the  public  knows  little,  a  fine  collection  of  wall-paint- 
ings by  Bronzino,  and  a  beautifully  decorated  chapel 
of  St.  Bernard. 

The  large  hall,  in  which  the  Council  composed  of  a 
thousand  citizens  was  to  meet,  was  built  by  the  desire 
of  Savonarola,  and  has  since  been  used,  four  centuries 


Palazzo  Vccchio» 

Arnolfo  di  Cambio, 


ARCHITECTURE.  299 

later,  for  the  sittings  of  the  modern  Italian  Parlia- 
ment. The  architect  was  Simone  PoUaiuolo,  sur- 
namecl  ^'  II  Cronaca,"  celebrated  for  his  construction 
of  the  splendid  Corinthian  cornice  of  the  Strozzi 
Palace.  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  when  he  transferred  his 
residence  from  the  Medici  to  the  Yecchio  Palace,  in- 
structed Baccio  Bandinelli  to  alter  this  hall,  and  as  the 
latter  did  not  feel  himself  equal  to  the  task,  he  called 
in  the  assistance  of  Vasari,  who  raised  the  roof  more 
than  twenty  feet  and  decorated  the  ceiling.  It  is 
curious  to  note  that  twice  in  his  life  Vasari — who,  as 
a  painter,  was  only  inferior  to  the  great  artists  whose 
biographies  he  has  written — should,  like  ^lichael  An- 
gelo  and  Carracci,  have  had  the  opportunity  of  cover- 
ing the  greatest  areas  of  painting  ever  executed  in 
Italy.  He  painted  here  thirty-nine  compositions,  the 
smallest  of  which  is  six  yards  in  length,  selecting  his 
subjects  from  the  history  of  Florence  and  of  other 
cities  of  Tuscany,  as  Arezzo,  Cortone,  Monte  Pul- 
ciano,  Borgo  San  Sepolcro,  Trebbiano,  Volterra,  San 
Gemignano,  Chianti,  Certaldo,  and  Fiesole.  Romagna 
is  alluded  to  with  Castrocaro  and  the  river  Savio  ; 
while  Casentino,  Scarperia,  Pistoia,  Prato,  Pescia, 
and  Valdarno  are  represented  either  in  allegory  or 
by  some  incident  of  local  history. 

There  is  some  ingeniousness  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  trapezes  which  remained  to  be  decorated  at  the 
corner  of  the  Piazza  San  Firenze,  where  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio  abuts  upon  it.     This  was  the  part  added  by 


300  FLOKENCE. 

Cosimo  I.,  and  Vasari,  having  cut  out  a  large  square 
divided  into  several  panels  for  the  execution  of  his 
regular  compositions,  suddenly  found  himself  face  to 
face  with  a  triangle  very  difficult  to  ornament.  He 
solved  the  dilemma  by  means  of  a  corridor  separated 
from  the  large  hall,  and  with  a  play  of  perspective 
and  an  appropriate  decoration  made  this  part  into  a 
sort  of  antechamber.  It  was  here  that  he  painted 
the  portraits  of  his  associates,  Bernardo  di  Mona 
Mattoa,  mason  and  contractor  of  the  Avorks  5  Battista 
Botticello,  who  had  the  mouldings  and  frameworks  to 
attend  to ;  and  the  gilder,  Stephen  Yeltroni  de  Monte 
Sansovino.  Marco  da  Faenza,  a  painter  of  consider- 
able repute  at  the  time,  is  believed  to  have  assisted 
Yasari,  who  chilled  in  the  help  of  a  great  many  young 
students  (garzoni).  Another  inscription,  very  de- 
tailed in  its  particidars,  gives  their  names  in  full,  and 
does  justice  to  the  humblest  of  them. 

Proceeding  from  the  Sala  del  Cinquecento  to  the 
Sala  d'  Udienza,  one  goes  through  a  beautiful  mar- 
ble door  by  Benedetto  da  Maiano,  the  style  of  which 
does  not  harmonize  with  the  rest  of  the  room,  having 
been  brought  from  the  Medici  Palace,  to  Avhich  it  be- 
longed. There  still  remains  to  be  seen  the  chapel  of 
San  Bernardo,  beautifully  painted  in  fresco  by  Ridolfo 
Ghirlandajo,  but  it  has  lost  much  of  its  beauty  by 
having  been  fitted  up  for  the  use  of  the  municipality. 
The  present  Council  Room,  decorated  with  a  series 
of  beautiful  frescoes  by  Bronzino,  which  are  skilfully 


ARCHITECTURE.  301 

distributed  over  the  whole  of  its  siirfoce,  has  pre- 
served a  grandeur  and  unity  not  often  found  in  build- 
ings converted  to  modern  uses  ;  but  it  is  distressing 
to  see  rooms  so  associated  with  the  history  of  Flor- 
ence partitioned  off  and  degraded  into  municipal 
offices.  Their  destruction  can  only  bo  a  question 
of  time^  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  walls  so  bound 
np  with  the  ancient  history  of  Tuscany  have  not  been 
saved  from  this  last  indignity. 

THE  LOGGIA  DEL  BIGALLO. 

No  one  can  pass  by  the  corner  of  the  Corso  Adi- 
mari  without  having  his  attention  arrested  by  the 
delicately  carved  arcades  of  the  Bigallo,  formerly  a 
simple  oratory  of  the  Misericordia,  and  now  an  orphan 
asylum.  This  beautiful  building  is  the  work  of  Ki- 
colo  Pisano^  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  whose  career  will  be  found  detailed  at  length 
in  the  chapter  on  Florentine  Sculpture.* 

Before  the  erection  of  this  monument,  the  site 
upon  which  the  Bigallo  stands  was  occupied  by 
the  tower  in  which  the  dead  were  deposited  for 
eighteen  hours  before  burial.  It  was  the  tallest 
building  in  Florence,  being  230  feet  high,  and 
in  the  course  of  one  of  the  struggles  for  which  Flor- 

^  Although  Vasari  attributes  it  to  Nicolo  Pisano  its  date  shows 
it  to  belong  to  a  much  later  jieriod.  It  is  probably  the  work  of 
Andrea  Orcagna,  1308  ?-136S.  See  Horner's  Walks  in  Florence 
and  Its  Enrvirons. 


302  FLOEEXCE. 

ence  was  notorious^  the  GhibcUincs  liad  it  pulled 
do^\ai ;  according  to  the  tradition  instructing  the 
architect  who  was  employed  to  demolish  it  to  ar- 
range so  that  as  it  fell  it  would  crush  the  Baptistery 
of  San  Giovanni,  which  was  used  as  a  meeting-place 
by  the  Guelphs  ;  but  whether  this  story  is  true  or  not, 
the  Baptistery  escaped  destruction. 

The  Bigallo  consists  of  two  open  arches,  forming 
an  angle  with  the  street,  and  a  small  porch  leading 
to  a  sanctuary  closed  by  iron  gates.  The  design 
of  the  arches  is  exquisite,  the  mouldings  and  decora- 
tions are  in  admirable  taste,  and  on  the  walls  may 
still  be  traced,  though  dimmed  by  time,  the  outlines 
of  frescoes,  sometimes  attributed  to  Gaddi,  but  really 
the  work  of  some  artist  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Three  statues  of  the  Virgin  and  two  saints  decorate 
the  exterior,  while  over  the  altar  of  the  chapel  is  a 
life-size  statue  of  the  Virgin  and  Child  between  two 
angels  with  Jewish  turbans  on  their  heads,  formerly 
believed  to  be  by  Pisano,  though  documents  recently 
brought  to  light  by  Cicognara  prove  that  they  were 
executed  by  Alberto  Arnoldi  of  Florence  about  1360. 
A  predella  by  Ghirlandajo  and  numerous  other  fres- 
coes complete  the  decoration  of  this  exquisite  little 
building,  which  successive  restorations  have  not  de- 
prived of  its  leading  characteristics,  and  which  de- 
rives not  a  little  of  its  attraction  from  its  position  at  the 
corner  of  the  piazza  where  stand  the  Baptistery,  the 
Duomo  of  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  and  the  Campanile. 


ARCHITECTURE.  308 

SANTA   MARIA  DEL  FIORE. 

The  document  ^vhicli  registered  the  decision  of  the 
municipality  of  Florence  to  erect  the  cathedral  church 
in  1294  is  of  historical  interest,  as  testifying  to  the 
generous  spirit  of  the  Florentine  people.  Its  tenor  is 
as  follows  :* 

"  Believing  that  all  the  acts  and  undertakings  of  a 
people  which  prides  itself  upon  being  of  illustrious 
origin  should  bear  the  impress  of  grandeur  and  sa- 
gacity, we  command  Arnolfo,  director  of  the  public 
works  of  our  commune,  to  prepare  a  model  or  draw- 
ing for  the  building  which  is  to  be  erected  in  place 
of  the  church  of  Santa  Reparata.  He  is  bidden  to 
display  a  magnificence  which  human  power  and  skill 
can  never  surpass.  AVhatever  a  Government  under- 
takes should  correspond  with  the  generous  impulses 
of  the  citizens  whom  it  represents,  and  this  point  the 
architect  employed  to  build  our  cathedral  must  bear 
in  mind." 

The  name  is  evidently  meant  as  an  allusion  to  the 
lily  in  the  city  arms.  The  ceremony  of  laying  the 
first  stone  took  place  on  the  8th  of  September,  1298, 
Pope  Boniface  VIII.  being  represented  by  his  legate, 
Cardinal  Pietro  Valeriano.  Arnolfo's  design  was  a 
Latin  cross  with  a  nave  and  side-aisles  opening  into 
each  other  by  four  pointed  arches.     In  the  centre  of 

*  An  inscription  on  the  wall  of  the  Duorao  itself  seems  to 
indicate  that  this  date  given  by  Villani  is  incorrect  and  should 
be  1298. 


304  FLORE^X'E. 

the  space,  under  the  dome,  was  the  choir,  with  an 
octagonal  enclosure  and  an  altar,  and  in  each  of  the 
small  recesses  there  was  a  rectangular  chapel. 

Arnolfo  died  in  1310,  when  the  building  had  not 
got  Leyond  the  capitals  upon  Avhich  the  roof  was  to 
rest,  and  in  1332  Giotto  was  appointed  to  carry  on 
the  work  which  for  two  hundred  years  was  under 
the  supervision  of  the  greatest  architects  of  the  day. 

To  Giotto  we  owe  the  beautiful  addition  to  the 
cathedral  known  throughout  the  world  as  the  Campa- 
nile, which  was  built  in  1334  on  the  foundations  of 
the  little  church  of  San  Zenobio.  It  is  nearly  280 
feet  high,  or  about  30  feet  less  than  Giotto  had  de- 
signed, as  the  spire,  like  that  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice, 
with  which  he  had  intended  to  finish  it,  was  not  built 
by  Taddeo  Gaddi,  who  succeeded  him.  The  Campa- 
nile is  divided  into  six  sections,  the  first  two,  which 
can  easily  be  seen  from  the  ground,  being  decorated 
with  bas-reliefs  executed  by  Giotto  himself,  Andrea 
Pisano,  and  Luca  della  Robbia.  There  is  no  little 
analogy  of  sentiment  between  these  bas-reliefs  and 
those  of  the  famous  fountain  at  Perugia.  Above  these 
tAvo  divisions  are  niches  for  statues,  among  those 
placed  in  them  being  the  four  Evangelists,  by  Dona- 
tello,  and  on  the  principal  southern  facade  four  proph- 
ets, three  by  Andrea  Pisano,  and  the  fourth  by  Tom- 
masso  di  Stefano,  surnamed  Giottino.  Upon  the 
eastern  and  northern  sides  of  the  tower  are  saints  and 
patriarchs   by  Donatcllo,  Nicolo  di  Piero  of  Arezzo, 


ARCHITECTURE.  305 

Luca  (Ic'lla  liobbia,  and  Xanni  di  Bartolo.  One  of 
the  Evangelists  mentioned  above  is  the  celebrated 
"Zuccone,"  the  'Mjald"  8t.  ^Matthew  of  Donatelln,  a 
work  Avhich  he  esteemed  so  highly  that  he  was  more 
than  once  heard^  while  engaged  upon  the  statue,  ad- 
juring it  to  speak  ;  Avhile,  by  way  of  emphasizing  a 
statement,  he  would  say,  '^  By  the  faith  I  have  in  my 
Zuccone." 

Charles  V.,  when  he  entered  Florence  after  the 
siege,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  Campanile 
"  ought  to  have  a  case  made  for  it,  so  that  it  might 
be  shown  as  one  Avould  a  jewel."  In  the  belfry, 
which  commands  a  splendid  view  of  the  city,  there 
are  seven  bells,  the  largest — cast  in  1705  to  re})lace 
one  which  had  got  cracked — weighing  nearly  eight 
tons. 

The  most  illustrious  of  Giotto's  successors  was 
Filippo  Brunelleschi,  who,  as  has  been  described  in 
a  previous  chapter,  began  the  superb  cupola  in  1421. 
This  was  his  Diagnum  opuSj  exceeding  in  boldness  of 
design  and  harmony  of  detail  all  other  Avorks  of  mod- 
ern art.  The  cupola,  as  is  generally  known,  is  double, 
the  inner  wall  being  s[)h('rlcal,  so  that  between  it  and 
the  outer  one  there  is  nxim  for  the  staircases,  brac- 
ings, and  chains  Avhicli  help  to  make  the  woi*k  more 
durable.  ]\rK'liael  Angelo  took  this  as  his  model  uhcn 
constructing  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  and 
Leo  Battista  Alberti  for  his  unfinished  temple  at  Ri- 
mini.    It  was  not  completed  until  lifteen  years  after 

20 


306  FLORENCE. 

Brimellesclii's  death,  Andrea  del  Verroccliio,  the 
sculptor  of  the  Medici  tomb  in  the  old  sacristy,  de- 
signing and  executing  the  ball,  and  Giovanni  di  Bar- 
tolo  the  scroll  on  which  the  cross  rests.  The  church 
contains  several  monuments,  including  those  of  Giotto, 
erected  by  Benedetto  da  Maiano  by  order  of  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent,  and  of  the  celebrated  organist  An- 
tonio Squarcialupi,  who  was  a  favorite  of  Lorenzo, 
and  Avhose  epitaph  was  composed  by  his  patron. 
Aldobrandino  Ottobuoni  has  his  sarcophagus  near  the 
8ervi  door,  and  it  is  believed  that  Poggio  is  also  buried 
here. 

The  walls  are  somewhat  bare,  but  the  build- 
ing contains  many  works  of  the  highest  order  by 
Donatello,  Michelozzi,  Ghiberti,  Delia  Robbia,  San- 
sovino,  Bandinelli,  and  Andrea  del  Castagno.  It 
was  near  the  Servi  door  that  Domenico  di  Michelino 
painted  in  1465  the  portrait  of  Dante  which  Avas 
ordered  by  the  Opera  del  Duomo  as  a  tardy  tribute 
to  his  memory.  Dante  is  represented  in  a  red  toga, 
crowned  with  laurel,  holding  in  one  hand  his  poem, 
while  with  the  other  he  points  to  the  Inferno.  The 
inscription  states  that  the  execution  of  this  fresco  was 
suggested  by  Maestro  Antonio,  of  the  order  of  Fran- 
ciscans, who  had  given  public  readings  and  explana- 
tions of  the  Divine  Comedy  in  the  Cathedral. 

In  this  wonderful  building,  so  closely  associated 
with  the  history  of  Florence,  was  enacted  the  opening 
chapter  of  the  Pazzi  conspiracy,  and  it  was   in  the 


ARCHITECTUKE.  307 

sacristy  that  Lorenzo  took  refuge  after  the  death  of 
GiuHano.  The  medallion  of  Pollaiuolo  (sec  chapter 
on  Giuliano  de'  Medici)  shows  what  was  tlie  appear- 
ance of  the  octagonal  choir  then  standing  beneath 
the  dome.  The  facade  of  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore  was 
completed  in  1887  from  designs  by  De  Fabris. 

THE  BAPTISTERY  OF  SAX  GIOVANNI. 

This  is  the  most  ancient  building  in  Florence,  for 
if  not  of  pagan  origin  it  certainly  dates  from  the 
earhest  ages  of  Christianity.  It  was  coated  with 
marble  of  different  colors  by  Arnolfo  di  Cambio  in 
1293,  while  in  the  sixteenth  century  Agnolo  Gaddi 
designed  the  lantern  5  but  long  before  Arnolfo's  time 
it  had  been  employed  as  a  Christian  place  of  worship, 
being  used  as  a  cathedral  up  to  1128,  when  it  was 
converted  into  a  baptistery. 

This  building  contains  three  gates,  which  have  no 
parallel  in  the  world.  The  oldest  is  that  on  the  south- 
ern side,  upon  which  Pisano  spent  twenty-two  years 
of  his  life,  a  most  beautiful  work  representing,  in 
twenty  compartments,  the  life  of  St.  John  the  Bap- 
tist. Tlie  frieze  which  runs  round  it  was  commenced 
nearly  a  century  afterwards  by  Ghibcrti,  and  Pol- 
laiuolo had  much  to  do  with  its  com[)letion. 

The  northern  gates  are  by  Ghibcrti,  and,  like  those 
of  Pisano,  are  divided  into  twenty  compartments,  the 
subject  being  the  life  of  Christ.  The  bronze  door-posts 
are  delicately  carved  with  flowers,  fruit,  and  animals. 


308  FLORENCE. 

These  gates  were  first  placed  on  tlie  eastern  side,  but 
in  1452  were  removed  to  make  room  for  Gliiberti's 
still  finer  work. 

On  the  third  fayadc,  that  which  faces  the  Duomo, 
is  the  Porta  del  Paradiso,  so  named  by  Michael  An- 
gelo,  who  declared  that  this  gate  was  worthy  to  be 
the  entrance  into  Paradise.  Ghiberti  divided  each 
panel  into  five  parts,  taking  the  following  as  his  sub- 
jects, after  suggestions  made  by  Leonardo  Bruni 
Aretino:  (1)  Creation  of  Adam  and  Eve;  (2)  Cain  and 
Abel ;  (3)  Noah  ;  (4)  Abraham  and  Isaac  ;  (5)  Jacob 
and  Esau ;  (6)  Joseph  in  Egypt ;  (7)  Moses  on  Mount 
Sinai ;  (8)  The  Capture  of  Jericho  5  (9)  David  Slay- 
ing Goliath  ;   (10)  The  Queen  of  Sheba  and  Solomon. 

The  frieze  contains  statuettes  of  the  prophets  and 
prophetesses  and  portrait-busts  of  men  and  women 
still  alive,  including  Ghiberti  himself  and  his  father ; 
while  the  frame-posts,  with  their  masses  of  vegetation 
and  flora  wrought  in  bronze,  are  admirable  for  their 
truth  to  nature.  Bronze  groups  representing  the 
"  Decapitation  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,"  by  Danti,  and 
the  ^^  Baptism  of  our  Lord,"  by  Andrea  Sansovino, 
surmount  two  of  the  gates,  which  were  at  one  time 
heavily  gilded,  though  few  traces  of  this  are  now 
visible. 

The  Baptistery,  empty  as  it  appears  to  the  eye 
upon  first  entering  it,  is  replete  with  beautiful  monu- 
ments, a  description  of  which  would  fill  a  good-sized 
volume.     It  is  built,  as  I  have  already  said,  upon  an 


ARCHITECTUEE.  309 

octagonal  plan.  The  altar,  which  formerly  stood 
beneath  the  cupola,  has  been  removed.  On  the  24th 
of  June  every  year  the  magnificent  rctablo  in  mas- 
sive silver,  Avhicli  is  preserved  among  the  treasures 
in  the  Opera  del  Duomo,  is  displayed  in  the  Bap- 
tistery. The  silver  alone  weighs  325  lbs.,  includ- 
ing two  centre  pieces,  two  side  pieces,  and  a  silver 
crucifix  with  two  statuettes  seven  feet  high  and 
w^eighing  141  lbs.,  the  group  being  completed  by  two 
statues  of  Peace  in  engine-turned  silver.  ]\Iany  ar- 
tists were  employed  upon  the  making  of  it.  Fin- 
iguerra,  Pollaiuolo,  Clone,  jMichelozzi,  Verrocchio, 
and  Cennini  made  the  lower  parts  and  the  bas-reliefs 
of  the  front,  while  the  cross,  executed  in  1456,  is  by 
Betto  di  Francesco,  and  the  base  of  it  by  Milano  di 
Domcnico  Dei  and  Antonio  Pollaiuolo. 

The  interior  of  the  cupola  of  San  Giovanni  is  or- 
namented with  some  of  the  oldest  specimens  of  mosaic 
decoration  in  Florence,  these  Byzantine  artists  being 
the  first,  after  Murano  and  Altino,  to  exercise  their 
craft  in  Italy,  and  being  succeeded  by  Jacopo  da 
Turita,  Andrea  Tafi,  and  Gaddo  Gaddi. 

In  the  biography  of  Cosimo  the  Elder  I  have 
alluded  to  the  handsome  tomb  of  Baldassare  Cossa 
(Pope  John  XXIII.,  deposed  at  the  time  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Constance),  which  was  reared  in  the  Baptistery 
by  Donatello.  The  Holy  of  Holies  is  relatively 
modern,  having  been  erected  at  the  expense  of  the 
CTuild  of  the  '^  Calimala/^  as  the  men  who  gave  the 


310  FLORENCE. 

finishing  touch  to  the  woollen  stuffs  manufiictured 
abroad  were  called.  The  baptismal  font,  in  a  build- 
ing specially  used  for  christening,  would,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  be  intrusted  to  artists  of  great  repute,  and 
that  at  San  Giovanni  is  attributed  to  Andrea  Pisano. 
Upon  each  face  is  represented  one  of  the  Baptisms 
most  famous  in  the  history  of  the  Catholic  religion, 
an  inscription  beneath  explaining  each  episode ;  but 
this  font  is  unfortunately  so  much  in  the  background 
that  it  escapes  the  notice  of  many  visitors. 

Donatello  carved  the  wooden  statue  of  the  Mag- 
dalen which  occupies  one  of  the  niches,  the  thin 
emaciated  face  being  typical  of  the  artist's  partiality 
for  reproducing  in  their  smallest  details  the  physical 
defects  of  his  subject.  With  regard  to  the  other 
features  of  interest  in  the  Baptistery,  they  will  be 
found  noticed  in  their  proper  place — the  mosaics  of 
Andrea  Tali  in  the  chapter  on  Painting,  and  the  bas- 
reliefs  of  Ghiberti  in  that  on  sculpture,  while  the 
works  of  Donatello  and  Pisano  have  already  been 
dealt  with.  The  exterior  aspect  of  the  Baptistery 
does  not  give  one  the  idea  of  a  building  restored  in 
the  thirteenth,  but  rather  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

THE  PONTE  YECCHIO. 

Until  the  close  of  1080  the  Ponte  Vecchio  was 
built  of  wood,  the  heavy  masses  of  timber,  though 
offering  no  steady  resistance  to  the  stream,  dividing 
the  muddy  course  of  the  waters  into  a  thousand  small 


Ponte  Vccchio* 


ARCHITECTURE.  311 

currents,  and  breaking  its  force.  But  in  1177  oc- 
curred one  of  those  inundations  which  were  so  fre- 
quent that  traces  of  them  may  still  be  seen  on  the 
walls  of  the  quays.  These  inundations  were  one  of 
the  curses  of  Florence,  and  tliough  the  evil  has  been 
to  a  certain  extent  cured  by  the  construction  of  mas- 
sive quays,  they  still  occur  in  the  direction  of  the 
Cascine.  An  attempt  was  accordingly  made  in  the 
twelfth  century  to  obviate  this  inconvenience  by  the 
construction  of  a  stone  bridge.  This,  in  turn,  was 
carried  away  in  1333,  and  Taddeo  Gaddi,  who  had 
already  made  a  name  for  himself  by  his  architectural 
skill,  was  employed  to  build  a  bridge  capable  of  re- 
sisting the  highest  floods.  The  present  bridge  was 
therefore  erected  in  1345,  being  330  feet  long  by  4-1: 
wide.  With  the  double  object  of  obtaining  an  income 
for  the  city  and  of  introducing  a  novel  feature,  shops 
were  built  on  the  two  pathways,  which  were  IG  feet 
wide,  and  these  were  let  to  the  butchers  of  Florence, 
thus  realizing  the  Eastern  plan  of  concentrating  the 
meat  trade  of  a  town  in  one  place.  This  arrange- 
ment lasted  from  1422  until  1593,  but  in  the  latter 
year,  under  Cosimo  I.,  the  ^^  Capitani  di  Parte,"  who 
had  the  supervision  of  the  streets  and  highways, 
ordered  that  all  the  goldsmiths  and  jcAvellers  should 
take  the  place  of  the  butchers,  and  in  a  few  months 
the  Ponte  Vecchio  became  the  wealthiest  and  most 
crowded  thoroughfare  of  Florence.  In  order  to  avoid 
shutting  out  a  view  of  the  stream  and  interfering  with 


312  FLORENCE. 

the  perspective,  an  open  space  had  been  reserved  in 
the  centre,  and  when  the  Palazzo  Vecchio  and  the 
Ufiizi  were  connected  with  the  Pitti  Palace  by  means 
of  the  large  covered  way  carried  over  the  bridge, 
this  space  was  left  intact  so  as  to  afford  a  view  of  the 
eminence  of  San  Miniato  upon  one  side,  of  the  wind- 
ings of  the  stream  on  the  other,  and  of  the  Cascine 
shrubberies  and  the  mountains  upon  the  horizon. 

The  first  bridge  above  was  built  in  1235  by  Messer 
Rubaconte,  a  Milanese  of  the  Casa  Mandella,  then 
Podesta  of  Florence,  and  is  called  Alle  Grazie.  The 
first  bridge  of  Santa  Trinita,  afterwards  replaced  by 
the  beautiful  one  which  we  owe  to  the  genius  of  Am- 
manati,  was  built  by  Messer  Lamberto  Frescobaldi, 
and  the  bridge  Alia  Carraja  was  begun  in  1218  by 
one  Lapo.  The  great  flood  of  1333  carried  all  of 
them  away,  and  this  disaster  is  recorded  upon  a  stone 
which  bears  the  following  inscription : 

'*  Del  Trentatre  dopo  rmille  Tracento, 
II  Ponte  Cadde  per  diluvio  d'Acque 
Poi  dodici  anni,  come  al  comun  piacque, 
Eifatto  fu  con  questo  adornamento." 

SAXTA  CROCK 

Built  by  Arnolfo,  then  fifty-four  years  of  age,  by 
order  of  the  Friars  of  St.  Francis,  this  venerable 
temple  was  raised  upon  the  piazza  called  Santa  Croce, 
where  formerly  stood  a  small  church  belonging  to  the 
order  of  Franciscan  monks.     They  had  resolved  to 


AKCHITECTUKE.  313 

embcllitili  and  enlarge  tlicir  cliurcli,  and  (Jardinal 
Matteo  D'Acqiiasparta,  general  of  the  Franciscan 
Order,  proclaimed  an  indulgence  to  all  contributors 
towards  the  uiiflertaklng.  The  church  was  far 
enough  advanced  in  1320  for  services  to  be  held  in 
it,  though  the  fa9ade  was  then,  as  until  a  very  recent 
period  it  remained,  a  plain  brick  wall,  without  facing 
or  any  other  ornament.  Santa  Croce  was  not  sin- 
gidar  in  this  respect,  for  San  Lorenzo  and  many  other 
Florentine  churches  have  never  been  decorated  ex- 
ternally. 

In  14-1:2  Cardinal  Bessarion,  the  founder  of  St. 
Mark's  Library  at  Venice,  was  delegated  to  perform 
the  ceremony  of  consecration.  Donatello  and  Ghi- 
bcrti,  incomplete  as  was  the  fagade,  executed  some 
statues  and  a  stained-glass  window  for  it,  but  it  is 
only  within  the  last  few  years  that  the  city  of  Flor- 
ence completed  the  work,  leaving  untouched  the 
grand  piazza  which  had  been  the  scene  of  so  many 
fetes  and  intestine  quarrels,  and  upon  wliich  is  now 
erected  a  statue  to  Dante.* 

The  interior  is  striking  from  its  vast  size,  the 
church  being  built  in  the  shape  of  a  Latin  cross,  with 
nave,  aisles,  and  transepts,  each  of  the  seven  pointed 
arches  being  supported  on  an  octagonal  column.  Op- 
posite the  front  entrance  is  the  high  altar,  while  all 

*  The  fa9ade  of  Santa  Croce  was  completed  in  1863.  The  ex- 
pense having  been  principally  born  by  Mr.  Francis  Sloane,  an 
Enfrlislimau. 


314  FLORENCE. 

around  the  walls  and  between  the  side  altars — erected 
in  1557  by  Vasari  by  order  of  Cosimo  I. — are  the 
monuments  of  the  illustrious  dead.  First  of  all  on 
the  left  there  is  Domenico  Sestini,  a  celebrated  nu- 
mismatist, whose  bust  was  carved  by  Pozzetti.  While 
in  the  first  chapel  on  the  right  is  the  tomb  of  Michael 
Angelo,  who  died  at  Rome  on  the  17th  of  February, 
1564 ;  the  monument  was  designed  by  Vasari,  the 
bust  was  executed  by  Battista  Lorenzo.  Two  con- 
temporary sculptors,  Valerie  Cioli  and  Giovanni 
Dell'Opera,  did  the  allegories  of  Sculpture  and  Archi- 
tecture, the  frescoes  around  the  monument  being  by 
Battista  Naldini.  A  nobler  tomb  might  well  have 
been  raised  to  the  memory  of  Michael  Angelo.  The 
body  was  deposited  in  the  church  on  the  12th  of 
March,  1564,  and  lay  in  state,  for  the  people  of  Flor- 
ence to  come  and  pay  him  the  last  tribute  of  respect. 

The  next  tomb  is  only  commemorative,  for  it  does 
not  contain  the  ashes  of  Dante,  in  whose  honor  it  was 
erected  in  1829  by  Ricci,  as  a  tardy  homage  on  the 
part  of  Florence  to  one  who  suffered  so  much  for  her 
sake  in  life. 

After  Dante  comes  Victor  Alfieri,  whose  name  has 
been  borne  with  distinction  by  his  descendants.  This 
monument  was  erected  by  Canova  in  1807.  Com- 
pared with  the  monuments  of  the  fifteenth  century 
and  of  the  Renaissance,  which  are  to  be  seen  in  such 
splendid  profusion  in  Florence,  these  tombs  seem  so 
inferior  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  wonder  how  the 


ARCHITECTURE.  315 

decadence  was  brought  about.  It  is  not  at  Florence 
alone  that  this  feeling  manifests  itself  j  for  at  Venice, 
in  the  splendid  temple  of  Santa  Maria  Gloriosa  dei 
Frari,  beside  the  tombs  of  doges  and  condottieri  of 
the  fifteenth  century  there  stands  that  wretched 
monument  upon  which  the  great  name  of  Titian  has 
been  traced.  This  is  evidently  the  result  of  an  in- 
evitable law  to  which  humanity  is  subject.  Genius 
comes  into  the  world,  grows,  spreads,  and  covers  the 
earth  with  its  shadow  :  then  slowly  the  sap  runs  back 
from  the  verdant  trunk,  the  tree  yields  less  luscious 
fruit  and  flowers  not  so  fair,  until  at  last  the  branches 
wither  and  the  tree  dies. 

Close  beside  Alfieri  is  buried  ]\Iachiavelli,  his  tomb, 
like  so  many  of  the  others,  being  of  modern  erection, 
and  consequently  less  beautiful  than  if  it  had  been 
the  work  of  a  sculptor  who  had  studied  in  the  school 
of  Ghiberti  or  Donatello.  By  the  side  of  iVlachiavelli 
rests  Luigi  Lanzi,  a  name  less  generally  known, 
though  celebrated  in  his  time  as  an  historiographer 
of  painting,  or  an  art  critic  as  we  should  now  call 
him.  His  friend,  Chevalier  Ornofrio  Boni,  prepared 
the  design  for  his  tomb,  which  was  executed  at  pub- 
lic cost.  The  pulpit — a  fine  specimen  of  fifteenth- 
century  sculpture,  carved  by  Benedetto  da  Maiano  at 
the  cost  of  Pietro  Mellini,  who  presented  it  to  the 
church — is  well  worth  close  inspection  ;  and  close  by, 
between  the  tombs  of  Lanzi  and  Leonardo  Bruni,  is 
a  group  in  freestone,  representing  the  Annunciation, 


316  FLOEENCE. 

This  was   one  of  the   first  of  Donatello's  works^  and 
gave  an  earnest  of  his  future  genius. 

The  tonlb  of  Leonardo  Bruni  Aretino  is  one  of  the 
five  or  six  greatest  works  of  this  nature  which  ever 
left  the  sculptor's  hands  ;  it  has  been  used  as  a  model 
by  the  sculptors  of  all  the  tombs  in  Santa  Maria  del 
Popolo  at  Rome.  Bom  in  1369,  Leonardo  died  at 
Florence  in  1443  ;  he  was  a  man  of  letters,  a  savant, 
and  an  adroit  diplomatist,  though  his  favorite  study 
was  the  law,  his  reputation  as  a  jurisconsult  being  of 
the  highest.  For  a  long  time,  however,  he  was  so 
attached  to  literature  that  he  abandoned  politics  for 
it  J  was  a  thorough  Greek  scholar  and  a  decided  parti- 
san of  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle.  He  had  served  as 
Apostolic  Secretary  under  four  popes,  and  when  John 
XXIII.  was  driven  into  exile  he  followed  him  from 
Constance.  The  Papal  bulls  of  the  early  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  noted  for  the  excellence  of  their 
Latin,  were  drawn  up  by  him.  It  was  not  until  to- 
wards the  end  of  his  life  that  he  could  be  induced  to 
abandon  his  post  at  the  Vatican  and  come  to  live  at 
Florence,  where  he  fulfilled  several  very  difficult  mis- 
sions, and  died  Chancellor  of  the  Republic.  He  was 
eulogized  in  the  most  extravagant  terms  by  his  con- 
temporaries, and  his  epitaph  records  that  "the  Muses, 
when  they  learnt  the  death  of  Leonardo,  could  not  re- 
strain their  tears,  and  were  dumb."  He  left  behind 
him  a  History  of  Florence  from  its  foundation  mitil 
1404,  and  this  work  seems  to  have  been  highly  ap- 


ARCHITECTURE.  317 

predated  at  the  time,  for  there  are  manuscripts  of  it 
in  nearly  every  important  library  throughout  Italy. 
The  monument  to  Leonardo  Bruni  is  the  highest  ex- 
pression of  sculptural  art,  combining  all  the  taste  of 
ancient  Greece  with  the  grace,  the  power,  the  calm, 
the  supreme  harmony,  and  the  perfection  which  genius 
alone  confers,  its  tranrpul  and  subdued  beauty  com- 
paring favorably  with  the  theatrical  effect  and  garish 
splendor  of  the  monuments  in  St.  John  Lateran  and 
St.  Peter's  at  Rome.  The  superb  mausoleums  of 
Leopardi  and  of  the  Lombardi  at  Venice  are,  perhaps, 
equally  beautiful ;  but  I  am  inclined  to  give  the 
preference  to  the  work  of  Bernardo  Rossellini.  He 
became  acquainted  with  Leonardo  Bruni  at  the  Papal 
Court,  where  he,  as  well  as  Leo  Battista  Alberti,  was 
a  director  of  the  pontifical  works.  The  IMadonna  let 
into  the  upper  part  of  the  monument  is  by  Andrea 
Yerocchio. 

Close  by  the  tomb  of  Bruni  is  that  of  P.  A.  Micheli, 
a  celebrated  botanist,  who  died  at  the  age  of  fifty  in 
1737  ;  and  the  last  monument  on  this  side  of  the  nave 
before  reaching  the  transept  is  that  of  Leopoldo  Xo- 
bili,  who  died  at  Florence  in  1833.  These  are  but 
second-rate  works  compared  with  those  which  precede 
them,  but  the  names  of  the  artists  have  been  kept 
alive,  Leopoldo  Veneziani  having  prepared  the  de- 
signs, and  Francesco  Pozzi  carved  the  bas-reliefs,  in 
which  the  genius  of  science  is  seen  lifting  the  veil  of 
nature,   which   is   being   held   up   by  the  allegorical 


318  FLORENCE. 

figure  of  Tuscany.  Not  for  from  these  is  the  mauso- 
leum which  Bartolini,  one  of  the  best  modern  sculp- 
tors in  Florence,  erected  to  the  memory  of  Leo  Bat- 
tista  Alberti,  who  as  writer,  architect,  sculptor,  and 
medallionist,  was  one  of  the  leading  men  of  his  day 
(1404-1472).  His  death  attracted  but  little  notice, 
and  he  was  buried  without  pomp  at  Rome,  and  no 
tomb  was  raised  to  his  memory. 

The  mausoleums  against  the  opposite  wall  of  the 
main  nave  are  those  of  the  Senator  Giovanni  Vincen- 
zio  Alberti ;  of  Antonio  Cocchi,  an  antiquary,  who 
died  in  1773  ;  and  of  Carlo  ^larsuppini,  Secretary  of 
the  Republic,  who  died  in  1453. 

This  last-named  mausoleum  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  works  fashioned  by  human  hands,  and 
it  is  by  the  creation  of  monuments  like  this  that 
Florence  has  taken  rank  immediately  after  Athens  in 
regard  to  intellectual  culture. 

There  are  some  artists,  just  as  there  are  some  poets, 
who,  dying  at  an  age  when  life  seems  to  be  opening 
joyously  before  them,  leave  behind  them  an  impres- 
sion of  tender  melancholy  which  may  even  be  traced 
in  their  works.  Desiderio  da  Settignano,  the  author 
of  the  tomb  of  Carlo  Marsuppini,  who  died  at  the  age 
of  five-and-thirty,  was  one  of  these.  He  was  born  in 
1428,  and  his  father,  Bartolomeo  di  Francesco,  a 
stone-cutter  at  Settignano,  was  a  friend  of  Raphael's 
father,  who,  in  his  ^'  Cronaca  Rimata,"  refers  to  the 
boy  as  "  II  bravo  Desider  si  dolce  e  bello,"  these  two 


ARCHITECTUKE.  319 

adjoctivcs  seeming  to  imply  that  lie  was  a  handsome 
youth.  Of  the  work  itself  it  is  difficult  to  give  an 
adequate  description,  the  dead  body  reposing  upon 
the  sarcophagus,  and  the  angelic  faces  of  the  two 
children  on  either  side,  striking  one,  as  it  were,  dumb 
Avith  admiration.  Tliis  monument  has  not  the  over- 
awing effect  of  the  Sistine  Chapel ;  it  is  not  pompous 
and  theatrical,  like  the  Lateran  chapels  ;  nor  is  it 
merely  elegant,  noble,  and  exquisite^  like  those  of 
Leopardi  or  Lombardi ;  but  there  is  something  more 
human  and  more  tender  about  it  5  so  much  so,  that 
after  a  long  study  of  the  painters  and  sculptors  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  one  is  liable  not  to  do  full  justice  to 
their  successors  who  brought  about  a  revolution  in 
art,  and  gave  expression  to  new  ideas.  If  the  great 
sculptor  Donatello  had  left  no  other  work  scored  to 
his  credit  save  his  pupil  Desiderio,  his  name  would 
still  be  gratefully  remembered. 

Carlo  ]\rarsup})ini,  to  whom  this  monument  was 
erected,  has  already  been  referred  to  as  the  Secretary 
of  the  Republic,  and  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of 
Florentine  citizens.  The  son  of  a  distinguished  juris- 
consult;  who  is  himself  buried  by  the  side  of  his  son, 
he  was  the  pupil  of  Giovanni  of  Ravenna,  and  of 
Emanuel  Chrysoloras  a  man  of  profound  learning, 
^^•ho  derived  great  pleasure  in  teaching  Greek  to  the 
young  men  of  Ravenna.  The  father  of  Carlo,  who 
had  been  for  a  short  time  Governor  of  Genoa,  was 
likewise  secretary  to  Charles  VI.  of  France,  and  the 


320  FLOEENCE. 

son  was  also  employed  in  the  public  service,  liis  first 
mission  being  to  accompany  Cosimo  de'  Medici  to 
Parma :  tlience  lie  passed  into  the  service  of  Pope 
Eugenius  IV.,  and  then  he  came  to  Florence  and 
acted  as  secretary  to  the  Republic.  He  several  times 
represented  the  city  as  ambassador,  and  at  his  death 
the  people  honored  his  memory  by  one  of  the  grand 
funeral  ceremonies  then  in  vogue.  Upon  the  24th 
of  April,  1453,  the  body  was  placed  upon  a  state  bed, 
robed  in  silk,  around  which  streamed  banners  from 
the  Pope,  the  King  of  France,  the  towns  of  Florence 
and  Arezzo,  and  each  of  the  communities  and  asso- 
ciations of  the  city.  Matteo  Palmieri,  one  of  the 
most  learned  men  of  the  day,  placed  a  laurel  wreath 
upon  his  brow  and  pronounced  a  funeral  eulogy. 

After  the  tomb  of  the  Secretary  comes  that  of  one 
less  illustrious,  Angiolo  Tavanti,  secretary  to  the  Em- 
peror Francis,  husband  of  Marie  Therese,  who  died 
in  1782.  This  monument  is  by  Spinazzi,  who  also 
carved  that  erected  to  Giovanni  Lami,  who,  though 
noAV  somewhat  forgotten,  rendered  no  little  service  to 
Florentine  literature  by  his  many  classical  publica- 
tions.     Lami  was  born  in  1008  and  died  in  1770. 

In  visiting  Santa  Croce  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel 
how  erroneous  are  the  views  often  held  as  to  the  ex- 
act place  which  will  be  allotted  in  the  roll  of  history 
to  the  men  of  the  day.  Many  of  the  names  in  this 
Pantheon  are  almost  unknown,  the  tomb  next  to  that 
of  Galileo  containing  the  dust  of  Mulazzi-Sigiiorini; 


Cloisters  of  S.  Croce. 

Arnolfo  di  Cambio. 


ARCHITECTURE.  321 

who  has  never  been  heard  of  out  of  Italy.  Another 
unavoidable  reflection  is  that  the  talent  of  the  sculp- 
tor is  rarely  in  proportion  to  that  of  the  man  whose 
memory  he  is  about  to  perpetuate.  ]Machiavclli  was 
commemorated  by  two  obscure  sculptors  like  Foggini 
and  Ticcati,  and  Michael  Angelo  by  Battista  Lorenzi. 
What  has  the  world  not  lost  by  the  refusal  of  Michael 
Angelo's  offer  to  erect  a  tomb  to  Dante  when  the  city 
of  Florence  was  about  to  ask  Eavenna  to  restore  his 
remains  to  her ! 

Among  the  less  illustrious  persons  whose  tombs  are 
to  be  seen  in  Santa  Croce  may  be  mentioned  the 
Countess  of  Albany,  w^hose  monument  is  by  Luigi 
Giovannozzi  and  Emilio  Santarelli,  Raddi  the  botanist, 
John  Catrick,  Princess  Charlotte  Bonaparte,  Joseph 
8alvetti,  Raphael  Morghen,  Bcttino  Ricasoli,  the 
architect  Alexander  Galilei,  the  Countess  Zamo'iska, 
and  the  Castellani. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  describe  all  the  ]\arts  of 
this  vast  monument,  Avhich,  interesting  in  itself,  con- 
tains numerous  works  of  art  in  the  way  of  pictures, 
bas-reliefs,  and  frescoes,  by  Taddeo  Gaddi,  Stamina, 
Mainardi,  and  even  Ci  lotto. 

The  convent  annexed  to  Santa  Croce  was  also 
built  by  Arnolfo.  It  was  originally  occupied  by  the 
Franciscan  monks,  and  it  was  here  that,  from  1284 
to  1782,  the  Inquisition  held  its  sittings.  The  notori- 
ous Frenchman,  Gaulthier  de  Brienne,  Duke  of 
Athens,  who  for  a  brief  period  ruled  Florence  as  Cap- 

21 


322  FLORENCR 

tain  of  the  People,  selected  this  monastery  as  his  resi- 
dence in  June,  1342,  but  having  in  September  of  the 
same  year  succeeded  in  getting  himself  elected  ruler 
of  Florence  for  life,  he  removed  to  the  Palazzo  Vec- 
chio.  His  reign,  however,  was  of  only  brief  duration, 
for  the  year  following  he  was  expelled  by  the  people. 

St.  Bernard  of  Siena  ;  the  celebrated  Felix  Peretti, 
the  monk  who  cast  away  his  crutches,  exclaiming, 
"  Ego  sum  Fapa  ;  "  the  mighty  Sixtus  Quintus  ;  and 
Pope  Clement  XIV.  were  all  monks  of  Santa  Croce. 

The  cloister  is  also  very  interesting,  for  although 
the  form  of  decoration  has  been  altered  by  successive 
generations,  the  primitive  design  has  been  preserved. 
Among  the  dead  buried  in  it  are  the  Alamanni,  Fran- 
cesco Pazzi,  and  Gastone  dclla  Torre  Patriarch  of 
Aquileia  and  Bishop  of  ^lilan,  who  died  at  Florence 
on  the  8th  of  April,  1317,  from  the  effects  of  a  fall 
from  his  horse. 

THE  CHAPEL  OF  THE  PAZZI. 

At  the  end  of  the  cloister  of  Santa  Croce  is  the 
Chapel  of  the  Pazzi,  built  in  l-tlO  by  the  powerful 
family  of  that  name,  who  intrusted  the  work  to  Filippo 
Brunelleschi.  By  permission  of  the  family,  this  chapel 
was  used  as  a  chapter-house  for  the  monks  of  Santa 
Croce,  and  in  1566  four  thousand  of  them  assembled 
there  to  hear  the  regulations  for  the  establishment  of 
the  Inquisition.  The  chapel  of  the  Pazzi  is  one  of 
the  sanctuaries  of  Italian  art,  having  a  purity  of  taste 


AKCHITECTUKE.  323 

peculiar  to  Florence,  and  is  as  perfect  a  specimen  as 
could  be  desired  of  the  new  architecture  which  Bru- 
nelleschi  introduced  at  the  dawn  of  the  Renaissance. 

When  an  architect  of  authority  and  genius  can  en- 
force strict  discipline  on  his  fellow-workers  he  obtains 
complete  harmony  both  in  general  effect  and  in  de- 
tail. This  was  the  case  with  Brunelleschi's  work,  and 
Luca  della  Robbia^  who  was  one  of  his  assistants,  not 
only  brought  into  play  his  abilities  as  a  sculptor,  but 
improved  the  general  effect  by  the  rich  friezes  with 
which  he  ornamented  the  interior.  There  are  such 
a  vast  number  of  works  by  his  brothers  and  the  artists 
of  his  school  that  his  ovm.  achievements  are  apt  to  be 
overlooked,  but  the  chapel  of  the  Pazzi  contains 
specimens  of  his  art  of  which  he  might  well  be  proud. 
The  Four  Evangelists  life-size  in  glazed  terra-cotta, 
the  heads  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  on  the  upper  part 
of  the  Avails,  and  a  frieze  composed  of  a  host  of  angels' 
heads  and  scutcheons,  form  a  charming  whole,  per- 
fect in  form,  rich  in  appearance,  and  of  a  coloring 
both  endurino;  and  brilliant.  Another  interesting 
feature,  from  an  architectural  point  of  view,  is  the 
use  of  terra-cotta  in  the  decoration  of  the  ceiling,  and 
of  the  cupola  in  the  portico  of  the  chapel. 

The  building  was  commenced  by  Andrea  Pazzi,  and 
at  his  death  the  work  was  carried  on  by  his  son  Fran- 
cesco, who  is  buried  in  the  convent.  Apart  from  the 
architectural  work,  the  Pazzi  employed  the  most 
famous   artists  of  the   day  for   the   decoration  of  the 


324  FLOKENCE. 

altars.     Many  of  the  heads  and  figures  of  the  angels 
are  by  Donatello. 

In  the  work  of  Francesco  Bocchi,  revised  by  Cmelli, 
and  published  in  the  seventeenth  century  under  the 
title  of  ^^  Le  Bellezze  della  Citta  di  Firenze,"  it  is 
stated  that  Galileo  is  buried  at  the  foot  of  an  altar  in 
the  Medici  chapel ;  and  as  the  author  says  that,  at 
the  time  of  his  writing,  the  tomb  Avas  still  in  the  same 
place,  it  must  be  assumed  either  that  the  monument 
in  Santa  Croce  is  only  commemorative,  or  that  his 
remains  have  been  removed  there  since.* 

THE  BAEGELLO. 

Formerly  known  as  the  Palazzo  del  Podesta,  this 
palace,  now  transformed  into  a  National  Museum,  was 
also  erected  by  Arnolfo,  and  is  a  very  fine  specimen 
of  thirteenth-century  architecture. 

In  September,  1250,  there  was  a  popular  rising 
against  the  Ghibellines.  As  a  matter  of  course,  there 
was  a  complete  change  of  government,  the  first  '^Cap- 
tain of  the  People  '^  was  appointed,  and  the  office  con- 
ferred upon  Hubert  of  Lucca,  who  had  under  him 
twelve  elders  (Anziani).     Arnolfo  di  Cambio  Avas  re- 

*  On  the  death  of  Galileo  the  feeling  of  the  clergy  against  him 
was  so  strong  that  they  would  not  permit  him  to  he  buried  within 
the  church  ;  his  remains  were,  therefore,  left  neglected  in  a  spot 
to  the  right  of  the  altar  in  the  chapel  of  the  Novitiate  of  the 
Medici  until  1757,  when  they  were  removed,  and,  in  accordance 
with  his  own  dying  request,  deposited  beside  the  body  of  his 
favorite  pupil,  Yiviani,  in  the  nave  of  the  church. 


ARCHITECTUKE.  325 

quested  to  build  a  palace  for  their  accommodation, 
and  the  site  selected  was  that  of  a  church  attached  to 
the  neighboring  monastery  of  the  Badia,  now  so  cele- 
brated for  its  venerable  appearance,  and  for  the 
beautiful  works  by  ]\Iino  da  Fiesole  which  it  contains. 
It  Avould  be  difficult  to  describe  what  the  Bargello 
was  like  in  the  thirteenth  century,  for  its  form  was 
changed  in  1345  by  Agnolo  Gaddi.*  It  was  first 
called  the  Palazzo  del  Commune,  and  afterwards  the 
Palace  of  the  Podesta,  being  styled  the  Bargello  when 
it  was  used  as  a  residence  for  the  Chief  of  Police,  who 
bore  that  title. 

Now  a  National  Museum,  and  restored  with  a  care- 
ful regard  to  its  original  aspect,  it  presents  a  very 
imposing  appearance,  and  is,  without  exception,  the 
best  preserved  of  all  the  ancient  monuments  in  Flor- 
ence. The  scutcheons  of  the  various  Podestas  and 
of  the  ordinary  members  of  council,  let  into  the  walls 
give  a  very  characteristic  appearance  to  the  orna- 
mentation. This  was  a  general  usage  at  the  time, 
and  many  interesting  specimens  of  this  description  of 
decoration,  now  fallen  into  disuse,  are  to  be  seen  at 
the  Town  Hall  of  Fiesole  and  in  the  little  village  at 
which  so  many  travellers  halt  to  visit  the  famous 
"  Certosa,"  beyond  the  gates  of  Florence. 

Another  singular  usage — though  it  was  dictated  by 

*  This  statement,  for  which  Vasari  is  responsible,  is  disputed, 
it  being  asserted  by  some  authorities  that  Neri  di  Fiorovarti  was 
the  architect  of  the  present  building. 


326  FLORENCE. 

a  sentiment  of  quite  an  opposite  kind — was  that  of 
representing,  on  the  walls  of  the  Bargello,  frescoes 
of  traitors  and  rebels,  and  in  1345  Giottino  Avas  em- 
ployed to  paint  the  featm^es  of  the  Duke  of  Athens 
after  his  downfall,  though,  unfortunately  for  us,  this 
fresco  is  now  almost  entirely  obliterated. 

The  walls  of  the  Bargello  chapel  were  well  kno\ATi 
to  be  covered  with  paintings  by  Giotto,  which,  when 
the  building  Avas  converted  into  a  prison,  Avere  con- 
cealed beneath  a  coat  of  whitewash,  and  only  brought 
to  light  again  in  1840,  portraits  of  Dante,  Brmietto, 
Latini,  and  Charles  of  Valois  being  discovered  among 
them.  During  the  fourteenth  century  the  prisoners 
condemned  to  death  were  executed  in  the  court-yard 
of  the  Bargello,  and  this  contributed  to  give  the  place 
a  sinister  name.  But  art  now  reigns  supreme  Avithin 
its  Avails,  and  the  great  names  of  Donatello,  Verroc- 
chio,  Michael  Angelo,  Maiano,  Desiderio,  Brunelleschi, 
Ghiberti,  and  the  brothers  Delia  Robbia,  have  obliter- 
ated the  recollection  of  the  gloom  in  Avhich  the  palace 
Avas  once  iuA^olved. 

AKDEEA   OECAGNA. 

(1308-1376.) 

A  large  place  in  the  history  of  Florentine  ai*t  is 
that  held  by  Andrea  Arcagnuolo,  surnamed  Clone, 
because  he  Avas  the  son  of  Matteo  Clone,  who  Avas 
himself  an  unriA^alled  goldsmith  in  his  day,  and  to 
whom  Ave  OAve  part  of  a  work  matchless  in  its  Avay^ 


AKCHITECTURE.  327 

viz.^   tlie    famous    silver    altar    treasured   up   in    the 
"  Opera  del  Duomo." 

Orcagna  was  born  in  1308,  and  tlie  date  of  his 
death  is  given  by  some  authorities  as  13G8,  and  by 
others  as  1376.  lie  was  goldsinith,  architect,  painter, 
sculptor,  and  even  poet,  combining,  like  so  many  of 
his  compatriots  in  the  fourteenth  and  two  following 
centuries,  manifold  gifts.  As  a  goldsmith  he  worked 
under  the  direction  of  his  father,  and  he  received  les- 
sons in  painting  from  his  eldest  brother,  Bernardi. 
He  soon  gave  up  the  goldsmith's  trade  for  fresco 
painting,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  his  great- 
est paintings  were  done  while  he  was  between  five- 
and-twenty  and  five-and-thirty.  His  brother  Ber- 
nardi, many  of  whose  works  are  ascribed  to  Andrea, 
painted  the  two  large  frescoes  of  Hell  and  Heaven  in 
Santa  Maria  Novella,  though  he  was  assisted  in  them 
by  his  brother.  He  showed  so  much  talent  in  easel- 
painting — the  London  National  Gallery  has  a  line 
specimen  of  his  pictures  in  the  "  Coronation  of  the 
Virgin  " — that  he  was  employed  to  decorate  the  walls 
of  the  Campo  Santo  at  Pisa.  This  was  the  great 
work  of  his  life,  and  he  showed  real  genius  in  paint- 
ing a  commentary  on  those  lines  in  which  Horace 
describes  how  "  pale  death  with  one  blow  overturns 
the  cottage  of  the  poor  and  the  })alace  of  the  great. '^ 
A  good  deal  is  said  about  ^'  realism  "  and  '"'  natural- 
ism" in  the  present  day,  but  Orcagna  rendered  palpa- 
ble by  his  unpretentious  style  of  art  the  idea  wliich 


328  FLOEENCE. 

he  had  In  his  mind,  and  the  most  simple  cannot  fail 
to  seize  his  meaning.* 

Andrea  Orcagna  first  distinguished  himself  as  an 
architect  in  connection  with  Or  San  Michele.  Arnolfo 
had  built  upon  the  site  of  an  old  Lombard  church 
dedicated  to  8t.  Michael  a  sort  of  Loggia,  to  be  used 
as  a  corn  mart,  of  the  kind  so  common  in  Italy,  the 
vaulted  roof  resting  on  brick  columns,  with  open 
arches  between  them.  A  celebrated  painter  of  his 
day,  Ugolino  of  Siena,  had  decorated  one  of  the  col- 
umns with  a  Madonna,  and  about  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century  this  became  a  place  of  pilgrimage. 
In  1294  it  was  rumored  that  a  miracle  had  been 
wrought  there  in  presence  of  the  people,  and  crowds 
came  on  market  days  with  votive  offerings,  until  at 
last  the  wealthy  corn  merchants  determined  to  erect 
a  building  more  worthy  of  the  object  of  their  worship. 
The  opportunity  occurred  in  1304,  when,  by  the 
carelessness  of  a  prior  of  San  Piero  Scheraggio,  knoT^Ti 
as  "  Neri  Abati,'^  the  corn  market  was  burnt  down, 
together  with  seven  hundred  houses  and  towers. 

At  the  joint  initiative  of  the  corn  merchants  and 
of  a  lay  order  wdiich  had  assumed  the  guardianship 
of  the  Madonna,  the  members  styleing  themselves 
captains  of  Or  San  ]\Iichele  (Or  being  derived  from 
Horrcum,  granary),t  it  was  resolved  to  rebuild  the 

*  These  frescoes  are  now  generally  attributed  to  some  artist  of 
the  Sienese  school. 

t  Or,  according  to  some  authorities  from  Ilortus,  a  garden. 


ARCHITECTURE.  329 

Log'f^ia,  and  the  work  was  intrusted  to  Taddeo  Gaddi, 
at  tliat  time  clilef  areliitect  (Capo  Maestro)  of  the 
Commune.  Above  the  part  set  aside  for  the  corn  ex- 
change he  built  two  stories,  one  for  the  Administra- 
tion and  the  other  for  the  granaries,  which  accounts 
for  the  pocuHar  shape  of  what  is  now  the  clnircli. 
The  first  stone  was  laid  with  great  pomp,  and  two 
years  later  the  Corporation  of  Silk-weavers  (Arte 
della  Seta)  having  asked  permission  to  place  the 
statue  of  their  j^atron  saint  in  one  of  the  niches  of  the 
new  building,  the  other  corporations  asked  a  like 
fovor.  Thus  it  was  that  in  course  of  time  the  original 
use  of  the  building  was  changed,  and  it  came  to  be  a 
consecrated  place  of  worship.  Large  sums  were  con- 
tinually being  bequeathed  to  it,  and  in  lifty  years  the 
gifts  of  the  pilgrims  alone  amounted  to  350,000  florins. 
When  the  plague  raged  in  Tuscany,  carrying  off  three- 
fifths  of  the  inhabitants  of  Florence,  four-fifths  of  the 
population  of  Pisa,  and  eight  thousand  inhabitants  of 
Siena,  the  Florentines  might  have  been  seen  kneeling 
night  and  day  before  the  Virgin  of  the  Pillar,  offering 
to  dedicate  their  fortunes  to  her  if  they  were  spared. 
The  Signoria,  acting  in  accordance  Avith  the  popular 
feeling,  passed  a  law  by  wliich  the  captains  of  C)r  San 
Michele  were  to  receive  a  third  of  the  property  of 
persons  who  had  slain  one  of  their  relatives  in  order 
to  obtain  his  or  her  inheritance. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Andrea  Or- 
caixna  was  called  in  to  transform  the  granary  into  a 


330  FLOKENCE. 

church,  its  history  «nnd  situation  making  it  one  of  the 
most  interesting  monuments  in  Florence.  There  it 
stands,  without  perspective  or  set-ofF,  as  impossible  to 
sketch  or  to  photograph  as  to  see,  situated  in  a  nar- 
row and  ill-built  street,  along  which,  as  is  so  often  the 
case  in  Florence,  one  might  pass  without  noticing  it.* 
Orcagna  closed  in  the  open  arches  with  Gothic  win- 
dows, placing  the  niches  for  the  different  patron  saints 
of  the  guilds  between  them.  The  famous  painting  of 
Ugolino  of  Siena  was  enclosed  by  him  in  a  shrine,  a 
work  unique  of  its  kind. 

This  shrine  is  of  white  marble,  and  Grothic  in  style, 
the  sculptures  representing  the  principal  episodes  in 
the  life  of  the  Virgin.  The  holy  image  is  in  the  centre 
of  the  composition,  which  is  surmounted  by  an  open- 
worked  lid,  with  statuettes  of  the  Archangel  Michael 
and  an  angel  above.  There  is  a  whole  mass  of  bas- 
reliefs,  statues,  busts,  mosaics,  incrusted  stones,  bril- 
liant enamels,  and  stained  glass,  the  great  variety  of 
material  not  marring  the  general  harmony.  Perkins, 
in  his  ^^  Italian  Sculptors,''  gives  the  following  com- 
plete description  of  it,  accompanied  by  etchings  of 
some  of  the  bas-reliefs.  He  says,  ^'  Upon  three  sides 
of  the  base,  in  octagonal  recesses,  are  bas-reliefs  rep- 
resenting the  Birth,  Presentation,  and  Marriage  of 
the    Virgin,    the    Annunciation,    the    Kativity,    the 

■^''  The  alterations  which  have  taken  place  in  Florence  since  this 
was  written  have  entirely  changed  the  surroundings  of  Or  San 
Michele. 


ARCHITECTURE.  331 

Adoration  of  the  Magi,  the  Presentation  of  Christ  in 
the  Temple,  and  an  angel  announcing  to  the  Virgin 
her  approaching  end.  The  Virgin,  represented  as  an 
aged  woman,  is  looking  -with  an  expression  of  hope 
and  submission  at  the  divine  messenger,  and  is  receiv- 
ing a  palm  branch,  which  will  render  her  body  invisi- 
ble to  the  Jews  when  carried  to  the  tomb.  .  .  . 
The  subjects  are  divided  by  small  bas-reliefs,  repre- 
senting the  Christian  virtues,  and  surrounded  by 
small  figures  personifying  the  Virtues,  the  Sciences, 
and  the  Arts.  Above  the  base  and  behind  the  shrine 
there  is  a  large  panel  representing  the  death  of  the 
Madonna,  laid  out  upon  her  bed  and  surrounded  by 
the  Apostles,  and  her  ascent  in  the  mystic  Olandorla,' 
whence  she  lets  fall  her  belt,  to  convince  the  doubting 
St.  Thomas." 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Orcagna,  instead  of  conceal- 
ing his  identity,  as  was  the  case  with  so  many  of  his 
contemporaries,  made  a  point  of  signing  his  works, 
and  on  the  shrine  in  San  Michele  may  be  read  in 
Gothic  letters  the  inscription,  "Andreas  Cionis,  pictor 
Fiorentinus  .  .  .  cxtitit  hujus  LIXMCCC."  He  also 
reproduced  his  own  features  in  one  of  the  bas-reliefs 
of  this  shrine,  executed,  as  the  inscription  proves, 
when  he  was  only  thirty  years  of  age. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  art  will  also  observe  that 
most  of  the  great  artists  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  who  were  at  once  architects,  painters, 
sculptors,  and  goldsmiths,  place  the  word  "  sculptor  " 


332  FLOKENCE. 

or  "  goldsmith  '^  in  the  corner  of  a  picture  ;  while  to 
a  piece  of  sculpture  they  append  the  signature  of 
"painter'^  or  ^'architect/'  as  if  to  prove  that  their 
talents  were  manifold.  Such  was  the  case  with  Ghi- 
berti,  Pollaiuolo,  Pisanello,  Francia,  and  several  others. 
The  celebrated  Madonna  by  Ugolino,  which  caused  the 
Loggia  to  be  converted  into  a  church,  has  not,  unfor- 
tunately, survived,  for  he  painted  "  alia  Greca,"  and 
as  he  transferred  it  at  once  on  '^  Intonaco,"  to  use  the 
term  of  the  day,  it  had  either  been  destroyed  by  the 
fire  of  1304,  or  had  gradually  been  obliterated  by  the 
damp  air  before  Orcagna  made  the  shrine.  But  an 
artist  whose  name  is  unknown — some  pupil  of  Giotto, 
no  doubt — painted  a  Madonna  on  canvas  for  it.* 

Orcagna  was  ten  years  about  this  work,  beginning 
by  closing  in  the  arcades  and  by  opening  a  door  on 
to  the  Via  Calimara,  completely  changing  the  appear- 
ance which  the  Loggia  had  when  built  by  Taddeo 
Gaddi. 

The  church,  as  we  see  it  now,  is  the  result  of  two 
centuries  of  embellishments,  but  it  was  in  the  fifteenth 
century  more  especially  that  the  guilds  showed  the 
greatest  liberality,  the  result  of  the  respective  dona- 
tions of  the  wool-carders,  the  butchers,  the   smiths, 

*  There  is  great  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  authorship  of  this 
picture.  It  has  been  attributed  to  Lanzi,  Orcagna,  Lorenzo  Mo- 
naco, and  Bernardo  Daddi  in  turn,  but  the  latest  investigations 
seem  to  settle  the  question  in  favor  of  the  last  named,  an  artist 
of  the  fourteenth  century. 


ARCHITECTURE.  333 

the  farriers,  etc.,  being  a  sort  of  external  altar,  very 
peculiar  in  shape,  and  having  a  mass  of  variegated 
ornamentation,  typical  of  the  development  of  the 
sculptor's  art  in  Florence. 

Apart  from  its  artistic  importance.  Or  San  Michele 
is  interesting,  because  it  symbolizes  the  strength  and 
influence  of  the  guilds  of  Florence,  Avhich  may  be 
said  to  have  made  the  city  not  only  wealthy  and 
famous,  but  noble  and  beautiful.  The  guilds,  in  short, 
were  the  first  and  most  beneficent  patrons  of  art  in 
Florence  and  throughout  Italy. 

There  were  fourteen  niches  on  the  outside,  and 
these  were  gradually  filled  with  statues  of  the  patron 
saints  of  the  various  guilds,  whose  banners  were  dis- 
played from  them  on  the  festival  of  St.  Anne.  This 
ceremony,  Avhich  Avas  one  of  the  most  imposing  of  the 
year,  Avas  first  observed  upon  the  expulsion  of  the 
Duke  of  Athens,  and  notwithstanding  the  dissolution 
of  the  guilds,  it  is  still  carried  on. 

Beginning  at  the  northwest,  we  see  the  statue  of 
St.  Matthew,  by  jMichelozzo  ]\Iichelozzi,  and  a  careful 
inspection  of  the  hem  of  the  cloak  Avhich  the  saint  is 
represented  as  wearing  will  disclose  the  following  in- 
scription : — '^  Opus,  Universitatis  cansorum,  Floren- 
tiai  An.  Dom.  MCCCCXX."  The  niche  itself  Avas 
designed  by  Niccolo  Aretino,  and  the  guild  of  money- 
changers bore  the  cost.* 

*  The  niche  was  more  probably  tlesigned  by  Ghibcrti,  to  whom 
the  statue  is  also  sometimes  ascribed. 


334  FLOEEXCE. 

Lorenzo  Gliiberti  did  the  statue  of  St.  Stephen,  in 
the  second  niche,  for  the  Guild  of  Wool-combers. 
The  Guild  of  Smiths  employed  Nanni,  the  son  of  An- 
tonio di  Banco,  less  famous  than  Ghiberti,  but  an 
artist  of  sterling  ability,  to  carve  their  statue.  A  bas- 
relief  at  the  foot  represents  the  bishop  under  whose 
protection  this  guild  placed  itself,  in  the  act  of  shoe- 
ing a  horse  possessed  by  a  devil.  This  facade,  look- 
ing on  to  a  dark,  narrow  street,  is  often  overlooked 
by  visitors  ;  but,  with  its  singular  corridor  connecting 
the  upper  stories  of  Or  San  Michele  with  the  neigh- 
boring house,  it  is  very  picturesque.  The  street  in 
question  is  called  ^'  Sdrucciolo  di  San  Michele."  The 
flax  merchants  obtained  permission  to  place  the 
statue  of  their  patron  saint  (St.  Mark)  in  the  first 
niche  of  the  south  side,  and  the  work  was  intrusted  to 
Donatello,  who  carved  a  statue  which  is  not  so  much 
admired  as  many  of  his  works,  though  ]\Iichael  An- 
gelo  is  reported  to  have  said  of  it,  ^^  How  can  any  one 
not  believe  the  Gospel,  when  it  is  preached  by  a  saint 
whose  countenance  is  honesty  itself?" 

Donatello  also  did  the  statue  of  St.  George  for  the 
armorers,  and  this  is  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of 
the  sculptor's  art.  St.  George  is  in  full  armor,  stand- 
ing upright,  and  with  one  hand  resting  on  his  shield. 
The  noble  and  tranquil  dignity  of  the  saint,  defying, 
as  it  were,  an  invisible  enemy,  is  the  most  striking 
feature  in  this  remarkable  work. 

On  the  pedestal  may  be  seen  a  small  bas-relief  by 


AECHITECTURE.  335 

Donatello  of  St.  George  slaying  the  Dragon,  a  terra- 
cotta reproduction  of  which  is  in  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum.* 

On  the  southern  front  is  the  statue  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  executed  by  Baccio  da  Montehipo  for  the 
Guild  of  the  "  Por  Santa  Maria/'  and  above  these 
niches,  in  the  spandrels,  Luca  della  Robbia  placed  the 
arms  and  emblems,  of  the  different  guilds  done  in 
terra-cotta  or  majolica.  The  fayade,  which  is  most 
noticed,  overlooking  as  it  does  one  of  the  most  crowded 
streets  of  Florence,  has  in  its  centre  a  splendid  niche, 
the  architectural  design  of  which  is  by  Donatello,  the 
niche  itself  containing  the  figure  of  St.  Thomas  thrust- 
ing his  finger  into  the  side  of  our  Lord,  by  Yerroc- 
chio,  the  tribunal  of  the  Mcrcanzia  having  found  the 
funds  for  this  effective  composition. 

Giovanni  da  Bologna,  at  a  later  period,  executed 
for  the  Guild  of  Judges  and  Notaries  the  statue  of  St. 
Luke,  which  occupies  the  first  niche  on  the  eastern 
front,  while  that  of  St.  Peter  on  the  north  side  is  bv 
Donatello,  who  did  it  for  the  Guild  of  Butchers. 

The  Guild  of  Shoemakers  instructed  Nanni  di 
Banco  to  carve  a  statue  of  St.  Pliilip  for  the  second 
niche  on  the  north  front,  and  the  Carpenters  and 
Masons  employed  him  to  erect  a  group  of  four  un- 
crowned saints  martyred  under  Diocletian.    An  anec- 

•'•  The  original  St.  George  by  Donatello  is  at  present  in  the 
National  Museum— II  Bargello — Avliither  it  was  taken  in  1S92,  a 
cast  being  substituted  at  Or  San  Michele. 


336  FLORENCE. 

dote,  which  proves  what  a  great  influence  Donatello 
possessed  over  the  artists  of  his  day,  is  told  in  connec- 
tion with  this  work.  When  the  saints  were  finished 
Nanni  discovered  that  they  were  too  big  for  the  niche, 
and  he  consulted  DonateUo,  who  promised  to  help  him 
out  of  his  trouble  if  he  would  give  a  supper  to  him 
and  liis  workmen.  Donatello  set  to  work,  and  after 
knocking  off  portions  of  the  shoulders  and  arms  of  the 
four  saints,  brought  them  into  such  close  contact  that 
they  could  be  placed  in  the  niche  without  difficulty. 
It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  description  that  Or 
San  Michele  is  a  true  sanctuary  of  Florentine  art.  In 
the  interior,  which,  like  the  exterior,  is  the  work  of 
successive  generations,  the  magnificent  shrine  of  Or- 
cagna,  representing  the  history  of  the  Virgin,  first 
attracts  our  attention.  The  first  altar  to  the  right  is 
modern,  Avhile  that  consecrated  to  St.  Anne  dates 
from  the  close  of  the  last  century,  in  the  centre  being 
a  handsome  group  of  St.  Anne  and  the  Virgin,  by 
San  Gallo,  an  artist  with  something  of  Michael  An- 
gelo's  manner. 

Simon  da  Fiesole  had  decorated  the  rear  altar  for 
the  Guild  of  Grocers,  but  it  has  been  entirely  reno- 
vated, and,  except  for  the  handsome  vaulted  roof  and 
Orcagna's  shrine,  the  interior  has  not  the  attractions 
of  the  exterior.  Still  there  is  no  sanctuary  in  Flor- 
ence more  venerated,  the  sacred  picture  of  Ugolino 
helping  to  inspire  the  people  of  the  present  day  Avith 
the  same  respect  which  was  shown  it  in  the  Middle 


ARCHITECTURE.  337 

Ages.  There  arc  two  curious  legends,  also,  in  con- 
nection with  the  group  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  hy 
Simon  da  Fiesolc.  One  of  these  is  that  a  Jew  having, 
in  1493,  struck  tliem  a  blow  on  the  face,  he  was  pur- 
sued and  stoned  to  death  by  the  children  of  Florence, 
an  inscription  at  the  base  of  the  statue  commemorat- 
ing this  occurrence.  It  was  reported  again  in  1628 
that  the  Virgin  had  been  seen  to  move  and  blink  her 
eyes,  and  as  the  plague  occurred  in  Florence  two 
years  later,  this  was  of  course  said  to  have  been  a 
presage  of  the  calamity. 

THE  LOGGIA  DEI  LAXZI. 

Concurrently  with  the  work  which  was  being  car- 
ried on  in  Or  San  Michele,  Orcagna  was  assisting  in 
the  building  of  the  Orvieto  Cathedral,  Avhere  he  spent 
the  year  1360  ;  but  so  nuicli  pressure  was  put  U|)on 
him  that  he  did  not  remain  there  long,  and  returned 
to  Florence,  the  first  important  work  which  he  under- 
took after  that  being  the  ''  Loggia  dci  Lanzi.''  xVc- 
cording  to  Gave  and  Kicci,  who  are  the  most  trust- 
wortliy  authorities,  this  work  was  begun  in  1374,  but 
Italian  dates  of  this  period  are  never  to  be  relied  upon 
alt(»gether.*  The  building  of  the  Loggia  was  hiter- 
rupted  by  war  and  civil  dissensions  during  a  j)eriod 
of  ten  years,  but  Baldinucci,  in  his  ''  Libro  di  Ricor- 
danze  del  Proveditore  Stieri,"  referring  to  the  sums 

*  The   Loegia  dei  Lanzi  is  also  attributed  to  Benci  di  Clone, 
who  moy  have  executed  it  from  designs  made  by  Orcagna. 

22 


338  FLORENCE. 

paid  to  the  sculptors  who  assisted  in  carving  the 
statues  above  the  Loggia,  shows  that  considerable 
progress  must  have  been  made  in  a  short  period.  It 
was  thought  at  one  time  that  Orcagna  had  carved  the 
statues  of  the  four  Cardinal  Virtues,  but  Gaddi  and 
Giovanni  Seti  are  now  known  to  liaA^e  executed  those 
of  ^^  Fortitude  "  and  '''  Temperance/'  if  not  the  two 
others. 

The  Loggia  merits  a  somewhat  detailed  descrip- 
tion, for  it  is  an  open-air  Tribune,  holding  much  the 
same  position  as  regards  sculpture  as  the  famous 
Uffizi  Tribune  does  in  respect  to  painting.  Orcagna, 
by  the  substitution  of  full  for  pointed  arches,  made  an 
innovation  in  architecture  which  was  generally  fol- 
lowed. 

The  principal  characteristics  of  this  handsome 
building  are  boldness  of  design,  elegance,  and 
strength  *,  it  consists  of  three  open  arches  with  three 
pillars,  enclosing  a  platform  raised  six  steps  above 
the  square. 

The  Loggia  was  originally  designed  to  protect  the 
citizens  from  the  weather  during  the  discussion  of 
public  affairs.  About  1541  Cosimo  I.  brought  to 
Florence  a  Swiss  Guard  composed  of  two  hundred 
soldiers,  and  the  name — De'  Lanzi — dates  from  this 
period,  the  derivation  being  from  the  word  Lancer. 
Not  that  the  Loggia  was  occupied  as  a  guard-house, 
like  that  on  the  Piazza  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice,  but 
there  was  a  barrack  close  by,  and  there  is  no  doubt 


ARCIIITECTUKE.  330 

that  the  sokliers  on  guard  at  tlie  Palazzo  Veccliio 
paced  up  and  down  before  it.  The  first  captain  of 
the  Swiss  Guard  was  named  Fuggler,  and  his  men 
were  quartered  first  in  the  Fortezza  da  Basso,  then 
in  the  Medici  Palace,  and  finally  on  the  Piazza  itself. 
The  Swiss  Guard  was  only  abolished  in  1745,  and  its 
uniform  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Pope's  Guard  at 
the  Vatican. 

The  aspect  of  the  Loggia  has  changed  with  time, 
though  its  architecture  has  undergone  no  modifica- 
tion, the  various  pieces  of  sculpture  being  placed  in 
it  as  they  Avere  executed.  Michael  Angelo  urged 
Cosimo  I.  to  continue  the  colonnade  all  round  the 
Piazza,  but  the  idea  was  not  carried  out  on  account  of 
the  expense.  The  oldest  of  all  the  works  of  sculpture 
placed  in  the  Loggia  is  beyond  question  Donatcllo's 
^'  Judith,"  though  it  was  not  originally  intended  to 
occupy  its  present  position.  An  engraving  of  the 
sixteenth  century  shows  that  it  then  stood  in  front 
of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio.  Its  transfer  to  the  arcade 
of  the  Loggia  is  due  to  a  circumstance  of  historic 
interest.  It  was  executed  in  the  first  instance  for 
the  Medici  Palace,  and  when  Pietro  de'  ]\Iedici  was 
expelled  it  was  placed  at  the  entrance  to  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio  and  the  following  inscription  carved  upon 
the  pedestal :  ""  Exemplum  Sal.  pub.  civcs  posucre, 
1495."  In  1504  it  was  replaced  by  Michael  An- 
gelo's  ''  David,"  and  subsequently  transported  to  its 
present  position,  which,  according  to   Gualandi,  the 


340  FLOEENCE. 

Bologna  art  critic^  it  has  occupied  for  nearly  four 
centuries. 

The  two  colossal  marble  lions  which  stand  at  the 
foot  of  the  staircase  have  only  been  there  since  1780; 
one  of  them  is  very  ancient^  while  the  other  is  by 
Flaminio  Vacca. 

^^  The  Rape  of  the  Sabines,"  a  superb  composition 
by  Giovanni  da  Bologna^  which  stands  out  finely 
against  the  architectural  background,  was  not  orig- 
inally intended  to  represent  that  subject.  Francesco 
de'  Medici  requested  that  the  artist  should  call  it 
'''  The  Rape  of  Andromeda  by  Phineus/'  but  Bor- 
ghini,  the  learned  critic,  suggested  ^^The  Rape  of  the 
Sabines  "  as  more  appropriate,  and  Giovanni  repre- 
sented that  historical  episode  upon  the  base  of  the 
pedestal.  He  was  eminently  fitted  for  the  work  of 
decorating  spacious  buildings  of  this  kind,  and  among 
his  other  compositions  is  "  Hercules  slaying  the  cen- 
taur Xessus,"  carved  from  a  single  block  of  marble, 
and  remarkable  for  the  precision  of  the  anatomy  and 
the  life-like  attitude  of  the  two  figures.  This  group 
Avas  not  specially  intended  for  the  place  it  occupies, 
but  it  forms  a  fitting  pendant  to  ""  The  Ajax  and 
Patroclus,"  a  restoration  of  a  Greek  sculpture  placed 
there  by  the  architect  Poccianti. 

Last  of  all  comes  the  masterpiece  of  Benvenuto 
Cellini,  a  bronze  statue  representing  Perseus,  Avhich 
has  all  the  characteristics  of  the  eccentric  genius  by 
whom  it  was  cast.     Perseus  is  represented  as  having 


Loggia,  ciei  Lanzi, 


ARCHITECTUKE.  341 

just  severed  Medusa's  head  from  the  trunk,  wliicli  is 
writhing  beneath  his  feet,  while  he,  witli  a  cahn  air 
of  triumph,  holds  up  the  head  with  one  hand,  his 
sword  grasped  in  the  other.  The  base  is  ornamented 
with  a  series  of  bas-reliefs,  the  four  sides  containing 
niches,  in  Avliich  are  small  allegorical  statues.  There 
are  few  more  interesting  stories  than  that  in  which 
Benvenuto  himself  relates  how  the  cast  of  the  statue 
was  made.  The  Loggia,  as  it  now  stands,  occupies  a 
page  in  the  history  of  Florentine  art,  Avhich,  instead 
of  lying  hidden  in  museums  and  galleries,  is  spread 
out  in  the  full  light  of  day,  beneath  the  blue  canopy 
of  heaven,  and  with  a  whole  population  to  admii'e 
its  beauties. 

PIAZZA  E  CHIESA  SANTA  MARIA  NOVELLA. 

Pucellai,  about  1469,  instructed  Leo  Battista  Al- 
berti  to  design  a  grand  fa9ade  for  the  church  of  Santa 
Maria  Novella.  The  square,  upon  which  one  now 
comes  upon  issuing  from  the  cloister,  was  then  the 
largest  in  Florence,  even  worse  off  for  open  spaces 
in  the  time  of  the  Medici  than  it  is  now.  Li  1331 
a  decree  had  been  issued  for  the  laying  out  of  this 
piazza,  and  thirteen  years  later,  when  Peter  Martyr 
was  delivering  a  series  of  sermons  against  an  hereti- 
cal sect  called  the  Paterini,  it  was  still  further  en- 
larged. 

As  all  the  inhabitants  of  Florence  were  very  fond 
of  festivals  and  sight-seeing,  an  open  space  of  this 


342  FLORENCE. 

kind  was  indispensable  5  and  when  in  after-years  the 
Grand  Duke  Cosimo  got  up  tournaments^  jousts^  and 
so  forth,  it  was  there  that  the  chariot  races,  with 
their  four  colors  of  green,  red,  sky-blue  and  white, 
were  held.  The  prize  was  a  piece  of  crimson  cloth, 
and  seats  were  erected  all  round  the  amphitheatre  for 
the  populace.  At  first  some  wooden  pyramids  served 
as  goals  for  the  competitors,  but  in  1608  Giovanni  da 
Bolof^ua  erected  the  two  small  obelisks  in  Seravezza 
marble,  resting  on  tortoises  and  surmounted  by  bronze 
lilies. 

The  church  is  very  famous  in  Florence,  and  with 
its  agglomeration  of  monastic  buildings  and  cloisters 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the  city.  In  1221 
the  Dominicans  took  possession  of  the  ancient  sanc- 
tuary, and  began  building  a  new  church.  Two  of 
their  order,  Fra  Ristoro  and  Fra  Sixtus,  were  ap- 
pointed architects  a  number  of  years  later,  and  the 
work  was  completed,  as  we  see  it  now,  in  1470.  The 
low  arcades  on  the  right  were  used  as  tombs,  beneath 
which  the  principal  families  living  in  the  quarter 
were  buried. 

The  interior  is  Gothic,  and  in  the  shape  of  a  Latin 
cross,  thus  forming  a  marked  contrast  with  the  classi- 
cal character  of  Alberti's  facade.  This  church  is  as 
much  a  museum  as  it  is  a  sanctuary,  some  of  the 
greatest  names  in  Italy  being  commemorated  there. 
It  contains  the  Rucellai  and  Strozzi  Chapels,  the 
tomb  of  the  Beata  Yillana  (1360),  of  G.  B.  Ricasoli, 


AECIIITECTUKE.  343 

of  Bishop  Alliotti,  of  t]i(3  Patriarcli  of  Constantinople, 
who  died  in  Florence  in  1440,  and  the  niansolenni 
of  Aldobrandini  Cavalcanti.  The  tomb  of  Filippo 
Strozzi  is  by  Benedetto  da  Maiano,  but  the  balus- 
trade of  the  organ  loft  by  Baccio  d'AgnoIo  has  been 
sold  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 

The  liuccellai  Chapel  contains  the  celebrated  Ma- 
donna by  Cimabue,  which  is  regarded  as  the  starting- 
point  of  the  Florentine  school,  and  there  are  many 
other  paintings  of  great  importance  in  Santa  Maria 
Novella,  including  two  frescoes  of  "  St.  Philip  Exor- 
cising the  Demon  "  and  of  "  St.  John  the  Evangelist 
Raising  Drusiana  to  Life."  But  the  artist  Avho  has 
done  most  for  this  church  is  Domenico  Ghirlandajo, 
who  was  employed  by  Tornabuoni  to  paint  in  the  choir 
a  series  of  scenes  from  the  lives  of  the  Virg-in  and 
St.  John  Baptist  in  which  appear  likenesses  of  sev- 
eral members  of  his  own  family  and  of  other  illus- 
trious persons  of  the  day.  Among  them  are  Luca 
Pitti,  Baldovinetti,  Piero  Tornabuoni,  Cosimo  son  of 
Lorenzo,  Bartolini,  Salimbeni,  Francesca  Pitti,  Po- 
litian,  ]\[arcilio  Ficino,  Cristoforo  Landino,  Andrea 
de'  Medici,  and  all  the  members  of  the  Tornabuoni 
and  Pidolii  families.  At  this  period  Michael  Angelo 
was  one  of  his  pupils,  and  in  the  "  Msitation  of  Mary 
to  Elizabeth "  he  is  said  to  have  painted  the  man 
looking  from  a  balcony  in  the  distance. 

The  walls  of  the  Strozzi  Chapel  are  covered  with 
frescoes  by  Filippino  Lippi^  and  the  cloisters  are  full 


344  FLORENCE. 

of  most  interesting  works.  In  the  Spanish  Chapel 
Taddeo  Gaddi  and  !Memmi  painted  the  Cliiirch  ]\Iili- 
tant  and  the  C'lnireh  Triumphant,  and  Memmi  is  be- 
lieved to  have  introduced  into  his  picture  the  leading 
men  of  his  day.  The  subject  of  Gaddi's  picture  is 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas  seated  in  a  pul})it,  surrounded 
by  the  Prophets,  the  Evangelists  and  the  angelic 
host.*  The  Great  Cloister,  as  it  is  called,  which 
communicates  with  this  one,  is  the  largest  in  Flor- 
ence, and  is  decorated  with  paintings  by  various  mas- 
ters. It  was  a  vast  rehgious  establishment,  dis- 
persed at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  founded  in 
1278,  covering  more  than  200,000  feet  of  ground. 
There  were  the  Pope's  quarters  and  the  Pope's  chapel; 
and  the  refectory,  built  by  Talenti  in  1460,  contain- 
ing several  paintings,  including  Allori's  famous  com- 
position representing  the  miraculous  supply  of  manna 
in  the  desert.  The  Spezeria  of  Santa  Maria  No- 
vella still  remains  open.  It  is  entered  by  a  door  on 
the  Via  Scala,  and  is  celebrated  for  the  liqueurs  and 
perfumes  prepared  there. 

Altogether  Santa  Maria  Novella  is  a  true  sanctuary 
of  art,  the  chapel  of  Ghirlandajo  giving  a  better  idea 
than  any  other  place  in  Florence  of  the  prolific  genius 
of  that  day,  while  the  compositions  in  the  cloisters 
are  worthy  to  be  compared  with  those  in  the  Campo 
Santo  at  Pisa. 

*  The  authorship  of  these  paintings  is  disputed. 


ARCHITECTUEE.  346 

THE  PIAZZA  DELLA  SAXTISSIMA  ANNUXZIATA. 

This  Is  one  of  tlie  finest  squares  in  Florence,  sur- 
rounded by  arcades  and  decorated  with  busts  of  the 
Medicean  Grand  Dukes.  Approaching  it  from  the 
south,  there  is  a  fine  view  of  the  church  of  the  An- 
nunziata,  while  to  tlie  right  it  is  flanked  by  the 
Foundling  Hospital,  and  to  the  left  by  the  convent 
of  the  order  of  Servites.  These  buildings  are  all 
much  in  the  same  style.  In  the  centre  of  the  square 
is  an  equestrian  statue  of  Ferdinand  I.  by  John  of 
Bologna,  while  to  the  right  and  left  are  two  fountains 
by  Pietro  Tacca,  in  which  monsters  of  the  deep  are 
in  the  act  of  vomiting  water  into  bronze  shells. 

The  statue  was  erected  in  1G08,  the  veteran  sculp- 
tor being  at  that  time  eighty  years  of  age,  and  the 
work  was  done  by  order  of  Ferdinand  II.,  as  a  tribute 
to  the  memory  of  his  predecessor,  and  also  to  com- 
memorate the  victory  of  the  Knights  of  St.  Stephen 
over  the  Turks,  the  cannon  taken  from  the  latter 
being  used  to  make  the  statue,  which  bore  the  in- 
scription, "  Con  la  fusione  dei  metalli  rapiti  al  fiero 
Trace."  Ferdinand  11.  afterwards  had  the  large 
bronze  shield,  with  motto,  ^^^lajcstate  Tantum,"  seme 
of  bees,  let  in  at  the  base  of  the  statue. 

The  portico  of  the  church  is  of  the  Corinthian  order, 
the  central  arcade  having  been  built  for  Leo  X.,  after 
the  designs  of  A.  da  San  Gallo,  while  the  money  for 
the  other  arcades  was  found  by  ^Uexander  and  Rub- 


346  FLOKENCE. 

ert  Pucci.  The  central  door  leads  into  the  church, 
and  opens  upon  the  beautiful  portico  decorated  by 
Andrea  del  Sarto  ;  that  to  the  left  leads  to  the  cloister, 
and  thence  to  the  church,  through  the  door  over  which 
Del  Sarto  painted  the  fomous  '^  Madonna  del  Sacco." 
The  door  to  the  right  opens  into  the  chapel  of  St. 
Sebastian,  with  its  tiny  cupola  which  rises  above  the 
portico.  This  church  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  Flor- 
ence, and  so  many  additions  have  been  made  to  it  of 
late  that  it  is  now  resplendent  with  gold  and  precious 
marbles.  Its  thirty  chapels  were  decorated  by  all  the 
princes  who  succeeded  one  another  in  Tuscany,  from 
the  time  of  the  first  Medici  down  to  the  last  repre- 
sentatives of  their  race. 

The  building  of  the  Foundling  Hospital  was  decided 
upon  at  the  meeting  of  the  Communal  Council  on  the 
25th  of  October,  1421,  the  mover  of  the  resolution 
being  Leonardo  Bruni,  who  is  buried  in  Santa  Croce. 
When  Filippo  Brunelleschi,  to  Avhom  the  work  was 
given,  had  to  leave  Florence  on  account  of  his  pre- 
vious engagements,  he  prepared  the  designs,  and  left 
his  pupil,  Francesco  della  Luna,  to  carry  them  out. 
This  was  much  to  be  regretted,  for  the  latter  changed 
the  lines  of  the  edifice,  and  having  once  begun  to 
make  alterations,  he  did  not  know  where  to  stop. 
The  fa9ade  has  a  handsome  portico  with  nine  arcades, 
and  in  the  spandrels  may  be  noticed  terra-cotta 
medallions  representing  infants  in  swaddling-clothes, 
as  typical  of  the  object  of  the  building. 


La  Madonna  del  Sacco,  Cloister  of  the  SS.  Annunziata. 

Andrea,  del  Sarto, 


ARCHITECTURE.  347 

The  frescoes  are  bj  PoccettI,  an  artist  of  some 
merit,  and  over  the  door  leading  from  the  court  to  the 
church  is  an  Annunciation  of  the  Virgin  by  Luca  della 
Robbia. 


848  FLOEENCE. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

SCULPTURE. 

KICCOLO  AND  GIOVAXXI  PISAXO. 

(1205-1278.) 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Tuscany  was  tlie 
cradle  of  the  Renaissance  of  sculpture,  for  though  the 
precedence  has  been  clahned  for  Apulia,  the  works 
of  sculpture  which  decorate  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
century  monuments  in  that  part  of  Italy  are  more  or 
less  of  a  Saracenic  or  Byzantine  type.  Pisano,  who" 
may  be  regarded  as  the  originator  of  Tuscan  art,  was 
not  a  native  of  Florence,  and  his  place  of  birth  is  un- 
certain, though  he  is  generally  believed  to  have  been 
born  at  Siena.  He  was  a  man  of  genius,  in  the  full 
acceptation  of  the  term,  for  he  was  the  creator  and 
founder  of  a  great  school.  He  at  first  devoted  his 
attention  to  architecture,  and  at  sixteen  years  of 
age  followed  the  Emperor  Frederick  II.  to  Naples, 
where  he  is  supposed  to  have  remained  twelve  years, 
during  which  period  he  undoubtedly  worked  at  the 
celebrated  Castcl  dell'  Ovo  and  the  Castel  Capuano. 
From  Naples  he  went  to  Padua,  where  he  is  said  to 
have  superintended  the  building  of  the  church  erected 
in  honor  of  San  Antonio,  the  famous  Santo  of  whom 


SCTLPTURK  349 

the  city  of  Padua  Is  so  proud,  tliougli  there  is  uo  direct 
proof  of  his  having  taken  part  in  this  great  work. 
From  Padua  he  went  to  Lucca,  where  he  first  gave 
evidence  of  his  skill  as  a  scidptor,  carving  a  '^  Descent 
from  the  Cross '^  for  one  of  tlie  side  doors  of  the 
catln^lral  of  San  Martino.  This  work  was  in  his  early 
manner,  tlie  outcome  of  his  natural  accpurements  and 
personal  observations,  and  to  this  period  doubtless  be- 
long the  Madonna,  the  St.  Dominic,  and  the  Mag- 
dalene on  the  Misericordia  Vecchia  at  Florence — this 
Madonna  being  the  prototype  of  all  the  subsequent 
Madonnas  of  the  Pisan  School. 

Henceforth  his  labors  as  an  architect  and  sculptor 
were  blended  together,  but  it  is  difficult  to  assign  an 
exact  date  to  each  of  his  works.  He  built  the  Santa 
Trinita  Church  at  Florence — restored  in  l.")<)3  by 
Buontalenti — San  Domenico  d'Arezzo,  the  Duomo  at 
Volterra,  the  Pieva,  and  Santa  ^largherita  at  Cortona. 
In  12G0,  by  Avliich  time  his  fame  both  as  a  sculptor 
and  an  architect  was  firmly  established,  he  executed 
the  beautifid  pulpit  in  the  Baptistery  of  Pisa,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  one  of  those  works  which  inspire 
a  whole  school.  In  this  creation  he  shows  the  influ- 
ence of  the  ancient  sculptures  which  had  come  under 
his  observation  as,  for  instance,  the  sarcophagus  con- 
taining the  ashes  of  the  wife  of  Bonifoce  ^larquis  of 
Tuscany,  and  mother  of  the  celebrated  Countess  Ma- 
tilda who  died  in  1076.  He  also  altered  the  accepted 
shape  which  had  been  adopted  from  the  earliest  ages 


350  FLORENCE. 

of  Christianity,  conforming  himself,  however,  to  the 
traditions  of  the  Lombard  Church,  by  letting  the  col- 
umns of  the  pulpit  rest  upon  the  backs  of  lions.  As 
a  proof  of  his  having  been  in  some  measure  inspired 
by  antique  art,  the  fact  of  his  having  taken  from  the 
Campo  Santo  of  Pisa  the  bearded  Bacchus  of  the 
Greek  vase  has  often  been  mentioned  by  writers  on 
this  subject. 

From  Pisa  Niccolo  went  to  Bologna,  where  he 
fashioned  the  sarcophagus  for  the  remains  of  San 
Domenico  (the  Area  di  San  Domcnico),  which  is  one 
of  the  marvels  of  that  city.  The  ashes  of  the  saint 
were  placed  in  it  on  the  12th  of  June,  1267,  as  we 
know  by  the  documents  brought  to  light  by  Professor 
Bonahii,  but  Niccolo  had  started  the  year  before  for 
Siena,  where  he  arranged  to  carve  the  cathedral  pul- 
pit, leaving  his  pupil  Guglielmo  Agnelli  to  complete 
a  few  unfinished  details.  The  pulpit  at  Siena  was 
erected  with  the  assistance  of  his  son  Giovanni,  and 
of  his  pupils,  Arnolfo  di  Cambioj  Donate,  and  Lapo. 
It  is  octagon  in  shape,  and  rests  upon  nine  columns. 
The  upper  part  has  six  panels,  filled  in  with  bas-re- 
liefs representing  the  Nativity,  the  Adoration  of  the 
Magi,  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  the  Massacre  of  the  In- 
nocents, the  Crucifixion,  and  the  Last  Judgment. 
The  centre  pillar  is  surrounded  by  allegorical  figures, 
in  semi-relief,  of  Astronomy,  Grammar,  Dialectics, 
Philosophy,  Arithmetic,  Geometry,  and  Music. 

The  frequent  journeys  of  Pisano  from  town  to  town, 


SCULPTURE.  351 

and  the  great  works  which  he  executed  in  each, 
naturally  exercised  no  little  influence  upon  art  in  the 
places  Avhich  he  visited,  and  at  Siena  more  especially 
he  acted  as  a  pioneer  for  all  the  sculptors  of  a  later 
date. 

The  name  of  Pisano  is  connected  Avith  one  of  the 
bloodiest  episodes  in  the  history  of  his  time — the  exe- 
cution of  Conradin,  by  order  of  Charles  of  Anjou, 
after  the  battle  of  Tagliacozzo — for  he  was  employed 
to  build  an  abbey  and  conyent  upon  the  battle-field, 
to  receive  the  remains  of  the  dead.  There  is  not, 
however,  a  single  stone  of  these  buildings  now  stand- 
ing, the  name  of  Santa  Maria  della  A'ittoria,  given  to 
a  neighboring  church,  alone  remaining  to  indicate  the 
spot.* 

In  1274  Pisano  was  at  Perugia,  where  he  erected 
the  beautifid  fountain  which  may  be  said  to  embody 
in  its  decorations  the  attributes  of  many  of  the  cities 
Avhich  he  had  previously  visited.  This  fountain  com- 
prises twenty-four  statuettes  attributed  to  Xiccolo, 
fifty  bas-reliefs  done  by  his  son  Giovanni,  and  a  basin 
from  which  springs  a  column  bearing  up  a  bronze 
Taz^tty  from  which,  in  turn,  springs  another  colnuni 
surrounded  by  nymphs,  and  surmounted  by  the  grif- 
fins of  Perugia  and  a  lion.  The  magistrates  of  Peru- 
gia set  so  much  store  by  this  fountain  that  severe 

*  A  festival  commemorative  of  tlie  victory  is  held  in  this 
church  every  hundred  years.  See  Perkins's  Hi><t.  Hand-book  of 
Italian  Sculpture.     Note,  p.  20. 


352  ILORENCE. 

edicts  were    issued  to  insure   its   preservation  from 
damage. 

Pisano  was  the  founder  of  Tuscan  sculpture,  and 
exercised  an  influence,  the  extent  of  which  cannot 
well  be  exaggerated,  upon  after  generations.  Per- 
kins, in  his  '^  Tuscan  Sculptors,"  Avell  says  of  him, 
^^  Respected  and  esteemed  by  all,  he  is  one  of  the 
truly  great  men  to  whom  the  whole  world  owes  an 
undying  debt  of  gratitude,  and  he  stands  out  like  a 
beacon  light  in  the  darkness  of  these  five  centuries. 
What  Dante  was  to  Italian  literature,  Niccolo  Pisano 
was  to  Italian  art.'' 

ANDREA  PISANO. 

(1273-1349.) 

Andrea  was  the  son  of  Ugolino  di  Nino,  and  he 
studied  under  Giovanni  Pisano,  the  son  of  Niccolo, 
acquiring  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  skilful 
bronze-founder  of  his  day.  He  was  the  maker  of 
one  of  the  bronze  gates  in  the  Baptistery  at  Flor- 
ence, and  the  inscription,  still  legible,  gives  the  date 
on  which  the  bronze  was  cast :  ^^  Andreas  Ugolini 
Nini  de  Pisis  me  fecit,  A.D.  MCCCXXX."  But 
though  the  casting  was  made  on  this  date,  Andrea, 
assisted  by  Leonardo  di  Giovanni,  sj^ent  nine  years 
more  upon  the  chasing  and  finishing.  A  hundred 
years  later,  Lorenzo  Ghiberti,  who  wrought  the 
famous  Gate  of  Paradise,  was  employed  to  make  the 
frieze  which  runs  round   the  gate  executed  by  An- 


SCULPTURE.  353 

drea^  and  after  his  death  in  1454  farther  additions 
Avcre  made  to  it  by  Pollaiuolo.  There  arc  altoj^ether 
twenty  panels,  representing  the  principal  incidents  in 
the  life  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

These  gates  -were  erected  during  the  artist's  life- 
time at  the  principal  entrance  opposite  the  facade 
of  the  Duomo,  and  the  Signoria  came  in  procession 
from  the  Palazzo  Yecchio  when  they  were  put  into 
place,  and  conferred  upon  the  maker  the  freedom  of 
the  city.  Demonstrations  of  this  kind  are  worth  re- 
cording, for  they  excite  a  spirit  of  emidation  among 
other  nations,  and  lead  to  a  further  development  of 
artistic  progress. 

Andrea  was  a  friend  of  Giotto,  and  contributed  to 
the  decoration  of  the  Campanile,  for  w  liich  he  carved 
several  of  the  bas-reliefs  upon  the  low^er  story.  He 
also  executed  some  statues  for  the  niches  of  the 
Duomo  far;adc. 

He  w^as  an  architect  as  well,  and  fortified  the 
Palazzo  Yecchio  for  Gaultier  de  Bricmie,  who,  how- 
ever, failed  to  find  it  a  secure  refuge  from  the  fury 
of  the  people.  He  also  erected  the  Baptistery  of 
Pistoia,  and  dying  at  Florence  in  1345  was  buried  in 
the  Cathedral.  The  development  of  the  art  of  scidp- 
ture  due  to  the  genius  of  these  men  is  indeed  mar- 
vellous, for  though  in  later  times  there  has  been  more 
freedom  of  movement  than  the  scidptors  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  could  boast  of,  their  conceptions  have 
never   been   outdone   in   point  of  boldness   and  con- 

23 


354  FLORENCE. 

scions  strength.  There  is  a  clear  analogy  between 
the  bas-reliefs  of  the  Campanile  and  those  on  the 
fountain  at  Perugia^  their  epic  outline  and  symbolic 
expression  lending  to  them  characteristics  of  grandeur 
and  simplicity  worthy  of  the  best  epoch  of  ancient 
sculpture.  It  may  be  said,  in  fact,  that  there  was 
more  profundity  of  thought  and  geniality  of  concep- 
tion with  the  Italian  sculptors  of  the  thirteenth  than 
Avith  those  of  the  fifteenth  century,  though  the  latter 
excelled  them  in  harmony  and  grace  of  outline. 

AXDREA  ORCAGNA. 
(1328-1368.) 

Although  Andrea  Orcagna,  surnamed  Clone  after 
his  father,  Matteo  Clone,  has  already  been  mentioned 
among  the  architects  and  painters  of  his  day,  his 
name  cannot  well  be  omitted  from  a  chapter  on  sculp- 
ture. He  was  a  goldsmith  as  well,  and  he  was  the 
maker  of  the  original  of  the  silver  altar  preserved  in 
the  treasury  of  the  Duomo.  This  work,  commenced 
in  136G,  was  destroyed  in  the  course  of  some  rebel- 
lion, but  a  new  one  was  made,  and  a  few  parts  of  tlie 
original  one  let  into  it,  by  Ghiberti,  Michelozzo,  Pol- 
laiuolo,  and  Verrocchio. 

His  brother,  who  Avas  a  painter,  helped  him  with 
the  frescoes  of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  and  he  then  set 
to  work  upon  the  celebrated  decorations  of  the  Campo 
Santo,  which  have  rendered  his  name  so  famous, 
^^The   Triumph  of  Death''   and  ^' The  Last  Judg- 


Tabernacle  in  Or  San  Michele. 

Andrea.  Orcagna. 


SCULPTURE.  355 

ment."*  He  transformed,  as  described  in  a  previous 
chapter,  Or  San  Micliele  from  a  corn  market  into  a 
sanctuary,  and  carved  the  Gotliic  shrine  of  Avhitc 
marble  Avhich  ilkistrates  the  liistory  of  the  Madonna. 
Pie  also  is  sometimes  credited  Avith  being  the  archi- 
tect of  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  and  to  all  these  gifts 
Avas  added  that  of  poetry,  for  he  has  left  behind  him 
many  sonnets,  and  manuscripts  of  his  are  to  be  seen 
in  the  library  of  the  Strozzi  Palace  and  in  the  Mag- 
liabecchiana.  There  is  some  doubt  as  to  whether  he 
built  the  Certosa  near  Florence,  though,  as  Xiccolo 
Acciaiuoli,  the  founder,  was  a  contemporary  of  his,  it 
is  generally  supposed  that  he  or  one  of  his  pupils 
should  be  credited  with  it.  Orcagna  was  the  last  of 
the  Pisano  school,  the  members  of  which  may  very 
appropriately  be  classed  with  that  of  Florence,  not 
merely  because  of  the  influence  which  they  exercised 
upon  art  there,  but  because  most  of  them  were  made 
citizens  of  Florence.  And  in  classing  them  thus  I 
am  only  following  an  example  set  by  all  historians  of 
art,  from  Vasari  down  to  Perkins. 

JACOPO  DEL  LA  QUERCL\. 

(1374-143S.) 

This  artist  was  not  a  Florentine,  though  it  is  not 
too  much  to  describe  him  as  the  forerunner  of  ]\Iichaol 
Angelo.  Born  at  Siena  in  1374,  he  executed,  when 
only  nineteen  years  of  age,  the  equestrian  statue  in 

*  See  note  to  chapter  on  Orcagna  on  this  subject. 


356  FLORENCE. 

wood  of  Azzo  Ubaldini,  the  celebrated  soldier.  He 
left  Siena  when  the  city  surrendered  to  Giovanni 
Galeas  Visconti^  and  after  earning  a  precarious  liveli- 
hood for  nine  or  ten  years,  he  came  to  Florence,  and 
took  part  in  the  competition  organized  by  the  Sig- 
noria  for  the  Baptistery  gates,  coming  out  of  it  only 
second  to  Ghiberti  and  Brunelleschi.  This  proof  of 
ability  stood  him  in  good  stead,  and  he  was  employed 
to  make  the  Porta  dei  Servi  at  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore, 
his  handiwork  being  plainly  discernible  in  the  ^'  Ma- 
donna dclla  Cintola,"  over  one  of  the  side  doors,  and 
in  the  mystic  ^^  Mandorla,"  with  angels  as  supporters. 

From  Florence  Jacopo  repaired  to  Ferrara,  where 
he  executed  the  tomb  of  Vera,  afterwards  transferred 
by  Annibale  Bentivoglio  to  the  church  of  San  Gio- 
vanni Maggiore  at  Bologna.  While  at  Ferrara  he 
received  an  application  to  erect  the  fountain  (1409— 
1419)  upon  the  grand  piazza  at  Siena,  and  ^'La  Fonte 
Gaza,"  as  it  is  called,  is  as  celebrated  as  that  erected 
by  Pisano  at  Perugia,  though  it  is  of  such  singidar 
construction  that  it  is  more  like  a  water-tower  than  a 
fountain.  This  work  was  in  such  a  dilapidated  state 
that  the  municipality  of  Siena  has  recently  had  it 
restored,  and  the  work,  so  far  as  it  has  gone,  has 
been  very  conscientiously  done. 

Only  a  small  fragment  of  the  tomb  erected  by 
Jacopo  in  the  cathedral  of  Lucca  to  Ilaria,  the  second 
wife  of  Paolo  Guinigi,  the  signor  of  the  city,  is  still 
extant,  the  remainder  having  been  destroyed  when 


SCULPTUKE.  357 

Paolo  was  dethroned ;  and  the  best  specimen  of  his 
talent  is  to  be  seen  in  the  decoration  of  the  grand 
portal  of  the  basilica  of  San  Petronius  at  Bologna, 
with  its  fifteen  bas-reliefs,  which  undoubtedly  influ- 
enced Michael  Angelo  ;  as  may  be  seen  by  comparing 
certain  parts  of  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel  with 
the  portal  of  San  Petronius. 

Jacopo  della  Querela  returned  to  Siena,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  contract  he  had  signed  for  two  bas-re- 
liefs for  the  Baptistery ;  he  passed  the  last  three  years 
of  his  life  there,  dying  in  that  city  on  the  20th  of 
October,  1438. 

LOEENZO  GHIBERTL 

(1378-1455.) 

The  son  of  Clone  di  Ser  Buonaccorso,  bom  at 
Florence  in  1378,  bears  one  of  the  most  popular 
names  in  the  history  of  Florentine  art,  thanks  to  the 
Porte  del  Paradiso  of  the  Baptistery,  and  an  adequate 
biography  of  him  Avould  occupy  a  volume  in  itself. 

He  served  his  apprenticeship  as  a  goldsmith  under 
Bartolo  di  Michieli,  who  was  his  mother's  second  hus- 
band. In  1399  he  Avent  to  Kimini,  and  attracted  the 
notice  of  Carlo  Malatesta,  the  uncle  of  Sigismundi, 
by  some  frescoes  he  executed  in  the  palace  ;  but  on 
hearing  of  the  competition  for  the  Baptistery  gates 
he  at  once  returned  to  Florence,  and,  as  previously 
explained,  was  successful  against  such  rivals  as  Bru- 
nelleschi  and  Querela. 


358  FLORENCE. 

Ghiberti  took  twenty  years  to  complete  this  work, 
though  he  had  twenty  assistants  in  the  moulding  and 
casting,  among  them  being  Donatello  and  Paolo 
Uccello.  In  142-4  the  gates  were  placed  in  the  posi- 
tion previously  occupied  by  those  of  Andrea  Pisano, 
just  opposite  the  entrance  to  the  Duomo,  and  the 
church-wardens  of  Santa  Maria  immediately  commis- 
sioned him  to  make  the  second  gates,  for  Avhich  Leo- 
nardo Bruni  Aretino,  the  Secretary  of  the  Eepublic, 
was  requested  to  select  the  subjects.  Ghiberti  began 
these  gates  when  quite  a  young  man,  and  when  they 
were  finished  he  was  seventy-four  years  old.  It 
should  be  added,  however,  that  he  had  undertaken 
several  other  works  in  the  interval,  including  the  St. 
Matthew,  St.  John,  and  St.  Stephen  at  Or  San 
Michele.  He  also  left  behind  him  bas-reliefs  for  the 
Baptistery  font  at  Siena,  funeral  slabs  at  Santa  Maria 
Novella  and  Santa  Croce,  and  the  bronze  shrine  of 
San  Zenobio,  executed  in  1446  for  the  Duomo  at 
Florence. 

Ghiberti  left  a  diary,  from  which  it  is  clear  that 
many  of  his  works  have  disappeared,  and  this  may  be 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  poetical  justice  ;  for,  as  already 
mentioned  in  the  sketch  of  BruneUeschi,  he  acted  in 
anything  but  an  honorable  way  towards  the  latter 
when  they  were  both  engaged  upon  the  cupola  of 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore. 

Ghiberti  was  pre-eminently  a  painter  and  gold- 
smith, for  in  sculpture  he  attempted  too  much  j  and 


SCULPTURE.  359 

instead  of  being  content  witli  tlie  resources  of  an  art 
Avliieli,  from  the  very  nature  of  tlie  materials  employed, 
is  limited,  he  abused  it  by  trying  to  obtain  all  the  variety 
of  a  picture.  The  result  arrived  at  is  remarkable, 
beyond  all  doubt,  but  the  principle  itself  is  false,  for 
it  is  unreasonable  to  ask  from  a  material  more  than 
it  is  capable  of  giving.  Even  in  the  gates — which 
are  the  creation  of  a  goldsmith  rather  than  of  a  sculp- 
tor— he  has  represented  the  sky  and  passing  clouds ; 
and  there  is  an  anecdote  told  of  a  very  competent 
judge  of  sculpture,  who,  passing  in  front  of  the  Bap- 
tistery gate,  said,  ^^  There  is  the  man  who  has  ruined 
sculpture."  The  judgment  was  a  severe  one,  but  it 
expresses,  if  in  an  exaggerated  form,  a  true  canon 
of  art. 

Ghiberti  was  less  at  home  in  the  carving  of  statues 
than  in  fashioning  shrines,  mitres,  and  other  ecclesi- 
astical objects  which  he  executed  for  the  pontiffs.  The 
complete  list  of  his  works  is  as  follows  :  At  the  age  of 
two-and-twenty  he  Avas  at  Rimini,  where  he  did  several 
enamels  and  frescoes  for  Carlo  Malatesta.  He  com- 
menced the  Baptistery  gates  in  1-1:03,  and  continued 
at  work  upon  them  for  twenty  years.  In  1414  he  cast 
the  statue  of  St.  John  for  Or  San  Michele,  and  in  1417 
we  find  him  at  Siena,  executing  two  bas-reliefs  for 
the  font,  which,  however,  were  not  completed  until 
1427,  and  then  at  Eome,  where  he  made  a  mitre  and 
some  other  things  for  Pope  Martin  Y.  In  1419  he 
did  the  statue  of  St.  Matthew  for  Or  San  Michele, 


360  FLORENCE. 

and  in  142-4  he  finished  the  first  of  the  Baptistery- 
gates,  having  between-whiles  erected  the  tomb  of  Fra 
Leonardo  di  Stagio  Dati. 

Three  j^ears  after  this  he  erected  the  tomb  of 
Lodovico  degli  Obizzi,  and  in  the  same  year  he  began 
the  second  of  the  Baptistery  gates.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, confine  his  attention  to  them  alone,  executing 
concm-rently  the  tomb  of  Bartolommeo  Valori,  the 
two  bas-reliefs  of  the  Siena  Baptistery,  the  shrine  of 
xSan  Zenobio,  another  shrine  for  Saints  Proto,  Gia- 
cinto,  and  Ximesio,  and  a  mitre  for  Pope  Eugenius 
IV.  In  1452  he  completed  his  second  pair  of  Bap- 
tistery gates,  and  on  the  1st  of  November,  1455,  he 
died  and  was  bui'ied  at  Santa  Croce. 

DOXATELLO. 

(13S6-14G6.) 

DonateUo,  son  of  Xiccolo  di  Betto  Bardi,  was  born 
at  Florence  in  1386,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
Michael  Angelo,  may  be  considered  the  greatest  of 
Florentine  sculptors.  He  was  a  Tuscan  to  the  core, 
as  upright  in  his  private  life  as  he  was  gifted  in  his 
calling.  Thoroughly  grounded  in  the  study  of  the 
antique,  which  he  held  in  the  deepest  veneration,  he 
at  the  same  time  succeeded  in  maintaining  his  own 
personal  characteristics ;  and  though  some  of  his 
works,  notably  a  patera  in  bronze,  forming  part  of 
the  Martelli  Collection  in  the  South  Kensington  Mu- 
seum, might  be   mistaken  for  some  relic  of  ancient 


SCULPTURE.  361 

Greece  at  first  sight,  they  have  a  distinctive  impress 
whicli  could  only  liave  been  given  them  by  a  Floren- 
tine artist  like  him.  I  have  dwelt  at  length  more 
than  once  before  upon  the  dramatic  and  splendid 
talents  of  Donatello,  but  he  possesses  a  power  and  a 
nobility  which  cannot  be  too  highly  eulogized,  his 
gifts  only  stopping  short  of  the  very  highest  genius. 
His  works  are  almost  infinite  in  their  variety,  and  he 
may  be  classed  with  Dante  and  Machiavelli  as  among 
the  most  characteristic  representatives  of  the  genius 
of  Florence.  He  was  a  man  of  culture  and  of  let- 
ters, with  a  more  extensive  knowledge  than  the  other 
great  stone-carvers  of  his  day ;  and  he  was  a  general 
favorite  with  his  brother  artists,  living  under  the  same 
roof  with  Michelozzo,  and  sharing  Ins  labors.  The 
story  of  how  he  assisted  Kanni  di  Banco  at  Or  San 
Michele  was  told  in  the  preceding  chapter ;  but  it 
may  be  added  that  he  was  beloved  by  his  pupils,  for 
one  of  whom,  Simone  Gliini,  he  made  a  journey  to 
Rome  for  the  express  purpose  of  assisting  him  to  cast 
the  bronze  slab  for  the  tomb  of  Martin  V. 

The  great  charm  of  Donatello  is  that  his  works 
appeal  to  the  heart  and  feelings  as  much  as  they 
charm  the  eye.  Few  have  possessed  to  an  equal  de- 
gree the  knowledge  of  how  to  obtain  desired  effects. 
A  statue  by  him,  which  looked  at  in  the  studio  ap- 
pears monstrous  and  ill-proportioned,  is  the  perfec- 
tion of  shape  and  outline  when  stood  in  the  ])lace  for 
which  it  is  intended. 


362  FLORENCE. 

Donatello  was  tlioroughly  versed  in  tlie  science  of 
practical  perspective  as  applied  to  buildings.  The 
famous  bas-reliefs  of  the  Bargello,  intended  for  the 
balustrade  of  the  organ-loft  in  the  Duomo,  the  beauty 
of  which  cannot  be  fullv  appreciated  when  seen  out 
of  their  place  on  a  level  with  the  eye,  are  a  good  in*- 
stance  of  his  perfect  knowledge  of  the  effect  of  height 
and  distance.  The  bas-reliefs  of  the  outer  pulpit  of 
the  Prato  Cathedral,  from  which  the  girdle  of  the  Vir- 
gin is  exhibited,  afford  another  instance  of  this.  There 
is  an  elasticity  of  movement  and  a  vivacity  about  the 
gambols  of  the  children  which  recall  the  words  of 
Horace,  ^'Nunc  pede  libero,  pulsanda  tellus."  Dona- 
tello, in  order  to  protect  these  bas-reliefs  from  possi- 
ble injury,  kept  their  level  below  that  of  the  surround- 
ing mouldings.  In  examining  this  pulpit  it  is  best 
first  to  consider  it  as  a  whole,  and  then  to  take  the 
separate  details. 

So  varied  and  vast  was  Donatello's  work  that  the 
mere  list  of  his  sculptures  in  San  Antonio  at  Padua, 
with  his  equestrian  statue  of  Gattamelata,  forms  a 
whole  volume — compiled  by  Herr  Bode,  Curator  of 
the  Berlin  Museum — and  is  a  very  interesting  contri- 
bution to  the  history  of  art  in  Italy. 

At  seventeen  years  of  age  he  went  to  Rome,  being 
already  an  artist  of  some  note,  as  he  had  been  con- 
sulted by  the  Signoria  on  some  questions  of  impor- 
tance. He  assisted  Brunelleschi  in  several  excava- 
tions, and  it  was  at  his  i^istigation  in  later  years  that 


SCULPTURE.  363 

Cosimo  tlic  Elder  formed  a  collection  of  antiquities. 
He  spent  several  years  at  Rome,  and  one  of  his  first 
works,  on  returning  to  his  native  city,  was  the  '^  An- 
nunciation of  the  Virgin  "  in  the  Cavalcanti  Chapel 
of  Santa  Croce.  There  is  much  grace  and  nobility 
about  this  work,  which  is  quite  in  his  early  manner, 
like  the  ^^St.  Mark"  in  Or  San  Michele.  The  "St. 
Peter"  was  of  a  later  date  (1411),  and  was  executed 
about  five  years  before  the  splendid  statue  of  St. 
George. 

It  was  between  the  years  1425  and  1427  that  he 
executed  the  tomb  of  John  XXIII.  in  the  Baptistery 
of  Florence  (referred  to  in  the  chapter  on  the 
Medici),  but  he  did  not  remain  all  the  time  in  Flor- 
ence, as  in  1426  he  erected  the  tombs  of  Cardinal 
Brancacci  in  the  church  of  San  Angelo  at  Xaples, 
and  of  Bartolommeo  Aragazzi  at  Montepulciano.  At 
the  end  of  1427  he  Avent  to  Siena,  and  did  a  bronze 
bas-relief  for  the  font  in  the  Baptistery  ;  and  letters 
dated  1433  speak  of  him  as  being  at  Rome,  where  he 
was  consulted  about  the  tomb  of  Martin  V.  The 
pulpit  of  the  Prato  Cathedral  dates  from  1434,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  left  Florence  for  the 
next  ten  years,  where  he  was  busily  engaged  upon 
statues  for  the  Campanile,  bas-reliefs  for  the  balus- 
trade of  the  organ-loft,  the  statue  of  "  David,"  and 
a  number  of  bas-reliefs,  statues,  terra-cotta  busts, 
and  bronzes,  now  disseminated  among  the  various 
collections  of  Europe. 


364  FLOEENCE. 

He  devoted  twelve  years  of  hard  work  to  the 
church  of  San  Antonio  of  Padua  and  the  statue  of 
Gattamelata  on  the  Piazza,  which  was  the  first  eques- 
trian statue  cast  in  Italy  in  modern  times.*  In  1444 
we  find  him  at  Ferrara^  to  which  he  paid  several 
visits,  and  it  Avas  about  this  time  that  he  made  an 
agreement  to  erect  a  bronze  statue  of  Borso  d'Este, 
though  nothing  ever  came  of  it.  The  proof  of  his 
having  been  at  Venice  is  to  be  found  in  the  beautiful 
wooden  statue  of  St.  John  over  one  of  the  altars  of 
Santa  Maria  Gloriosa  dci  Frari.  In  1456  and  1457 
he  was  at  Faenza,  and  this  was  his  last  excursion 
from  Florence.  On  his  return  he  modelled  the  niche 
at  Or  San  Michele,  in  Avhich  was  placed  the  group 
of  ^'  The  Doubting  Apostle  '^  by  Yerrocchio  ;  and  I 
must  also  mention  among  his  other  works  the  ^^  En- 
tombment/' at  South  Kensington ;  the  "  St.  Sebas- 
tian," belonging  to  ]\I.  E.  Andre,  of  Paris ;  the 
bronzes  presented  to  the  Louvre  by  M.  His  de  la 
Salle,  and  those  in  the  Berlin  Museum  5  to  say  noth- 
ing of  private  collections.  The  ^^  St.  John  "  in  the 
Duomo  at  Siena  was  also  his  handiwork,  and  the  last 
few  years  of  his  life  were  devoted  to  the  church  of 
San  Lorenzo,  Avhich  was  the  Pantheon  of  the  Medici 
family,  for  Avhich  he  did  the  Four  Evangelists  in 
stucco,  several  busts  of  saints,  the  small  bronze  door 

*  Equestrian  statues  of  Tommaso  and  Bonifazio  degli  Obizzi 
had  been  erected  at  Lucca  in  the  fourteenth  century.  See  Per- 
kins's Historical  Hand-book  of  Italian  Sculpture,  p.  103. 


SCULPTURE.  365 

near  tlie  altar  of  the  sacristy,  and  the  two  bronze 
})iilpits,  which  latter  were,  however,  completed  by 
his  pupil  Bertoldo  after  his  death.  Signs  of  de- 
crepitude are  to  be  observed  in  his  last  wr)rk.  the 
statue  of  St.  Louis  of  Toulouse,  which  formerly  ap- 
peared above  the  porch  of  Santa  Croce.  He  died 
of  an  attack  of  paralysis  on  the  13th  of  March,  146(3, 
after  one  of  the  most  enviable  careers  in  the  history 
of  art,  and  at  his  own  special  rerpiest  was  buried  in 
San  Lorenzo,  by  the  side  of  his  protectors  and  friends 
of  the  Medici  family. 

MICHELOZZO  MICHELOZZI. 

(1391-1472.) 

As  a  sculptor  Michelozzi  was  worthy  to  be  compared 
with  his  master,  Donatello,  but  it  w^as  as  an  architect 
that  he  was  best  known  in  Florence.  He  was  born 
in  that  city  about  1391,  his  father  being  a  tailor; 
and  he  was  destined,  in  conjunction  Avitli  Bruncllcschi 
and  Leo  Battista  Alberti,  to  make  a  fresh  departure 
in  architecture,  after  having  linked  his  name  with 
that  of  Donatello  in  the  execution  of  some  of  the 
great  works  which  the  latter  was  then  engaged  upon. 

He  had  the  honor  of  being  selected  by  Cosimo  the 
Elder  to  build  the  family  palace,  now  called  Riccardi, 
thou2:h  one  would  have  thouo'ht  that  the  Florentines 
would  have  restored  the  original  name.  It  was  there 
that  Cosimo  assembled  the  works  which  he  had  pur- 
chased on  the  advice  of  Donatello,  but  these  collec- 


366  FLOREXCE. 

tions  were  dispersed  Avlien  the  French  entered  the 
city  under  Charles  VIII.  During  Cosimo's  tem- 
porary exile  from  Florence,  Michelozzi,  his  intimate 
friend,  followed  him  to  Venice,  and  it  was  during 
that  time  that  he  built  for  the  convent  of  San  Giorgio 
Maggiore  a  splendid  library,  and  did  several  pieces 
of  work  for  the  churches.  At  Milan  he  built  the 
Vismara  Palace,  the  magnificent  gate  of  which  has 
been  removed  to  the  Brera  Palace.  Eeturning  to 
Florence  with  his  master,  he  restored  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio,  built  the  villa  of  Careggi,  the  favorite  resi- 
dence of  the  Medici,  those  of  CafFagiolo  and  Mozzi, 
and  enlarged  and  rebuilt  the  convent  of  San  Marco. 

A  fitting  pendant  to  the  Riccardi  Palace  woidd  be 
the  Strozzi  Palace,  but  it  is  so  badly  situated  in  a 
narrow  street  that  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  a  satis- 
factory view  of  it,  but  this  is  of  all  the  less  conse- 
quence, as  the  two  buildings  have  much  in  common. 
The  Strozzi  Palace,  however,  can  boast  of  the  mag- 
nificent Corinthian  cornice  Avhich  has  immortalized 
the  name  of  Simone  PoUaiullo,  surnamed  II  Cronaca, 
who  repeated  at  Siena  the  design  which  he  had  taken 
originally  from  the  fragment  of  an  ancient  cornice 
found  Ivino:  amons:  the  ruins  of  the  Poman  Forum. 

The  lanterns,  or  ''fanali,"  of  the  Strozzi  Palace 
also  deserve  notice.  The  artist  wlio  made  them  was 
named  Niccolo  Grossi ;  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  who 
Avould  often  stop  at  the  smithy  in  which  he  worked, 
had  nicknamed  him  ^^  Caparra,"  because  he  always 


SCULPTURE.  367 

insisted  upon  being  paid  in  advance.  These  iron 
lanterns  at  the  corner  of  the  palaces,  like  the  rings 
for  holding  torches  on  fete-days,  were  only  allowed 
to  the  most  distinguished  citizens,  and  for  this  reason 
those  who  had  the  privilege  of  displaying  them  en- 
deavored to  make  them  as  costly  and  beautiful  as 
possible.  The  Strozzi  key,  in  the  collection  of  Baron 
do  Rothschild,  was  at  one  time  regarded  as  another 
perfect  specimen  of  his  art ;  but  according  to  recent 
investigations  it  has  been  found  to  be  the  work  of  a 
French  artist. 

The  Pandolfini,  like  the  Medici  Palace,  is  typical 
of  its  kind.  Instead  of  being  built  like  most  of  the 
houses  in  the  fifteenth  century,  so  as  to  resist  attack, 
it  partakes  of  the  character  of  the  Florentine  palace 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Raphael  is  said  to  have 
prepared  the  designs  fur  it  in  1520,  the  building  it- 
self being  erected  by  G.  F.  da  San  Gallo  and  Aris- 
totile,  by  Avhom  it  was  not  completed  until  1G20. 

]\Iiclielozzi  is  less  known  as  a  sculptor  than  as  an 
architect,  though  he  has  left  a  silver  statuette  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist  on  the  Baptistery  altar  at  Florence, 
and  a  statue  of  Faith  on  the  monument  of  Pope 
John. 

Apart  from  its  architectural  interest,  the  Riccardi 
Palace,  sold  in  1659  by  the  Grand  Duke  Ferdinand 
II.  de'  Medici  to  the  Marquis  Gabbriello  Riccardi  for 
241,000  lire,  contains  many  works  of  art  of  the  high- 
est value,  including  the   famous   fresco  by  Benozzo 


368  FLORENCE. 

Gozzoli  in  the  chapel.  This  work  is  not  only  of  in- 
trinsic value,  but  is  interesting  from  the  fact  that  it 
gives  the  portraits  of  many  of  the  most  celebrated 
personages  of  the  day,  including  the  Medici  them- 
selves, and  the  friends  with  whom  they  were  wont  to 
converse  in  the  Ruccellai  Gardens.  The  JRiccardianaj 
or  private  library  of  the  Riccardi  family,  now  belong- 
ing to  the  city,  contains  twenty-four  thousand  vol- 
umes, among  them  being  three  thousand  six  hundred 
priceless  manuscripts,  and  six  hundred  editions  dating 
from  the  first  invention  of  printing. 

It  was  in  this  palace  that  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent 
was  born,  and  that  he  presided  over  the  meetings  of 
learned  men  who  formed  the  Academy.  JMichael  An- 
gelo  added  the  windows  under  what  was  formerly  a 
loggia.  In  the  large  guard-room  is  a  collection  of 
bas-reliefs,  fragments  of  ancient  sculpture,  sarcophagi, 
capitals,  and  inscriptions,  which  make  a  museum  in 
themselves,  placed  here  by  the  Marquis  Riccardi.  If 
tliis  palace  possessed  no  other  charm,  the  chapel,  with 
its  fresco  by  Gozzoli,  Avould  suffice  to  make  it  one 
of  the  most  attractive  buildings  in  Florence. 

DESIDEKIO  DA  SETTIGNAXO. 

(142S-1464.) 

Desiderio  was  the  son  of  a  stone-cutter  of  Settig- 
nano,  and  it  is  only  quite  recently  that  his  name  has 
become  famous  out  of  Italy,  it  may  even  be  said,  out 
of  Florence.     In  the  early  part  of  this  century  his 


SCULPTURE.  369 

works  Avcrc  confounded  with  those  of  Donatcllo  and 
other  celebrities  of  the  day,  but  liis  abilities  are  now 
fully  recognized,  and  it  is  seen  that  he  possessed  that 
tender  suavity  so  often  the  gift  of  those  Avho  arc  des- 
tined to  die  young. 

Vasari  himself  knew  so  little  about  him  that  he  is 
all  at  sea  in  the  dates  given  in  his  biography,  and  yet 
this  artist  produced  one  of  the  most  beautiful  works 
of  which  Florence,  rich  as  she  is  in  masterpieces  of 
art,  can  boast.  Here  and  there  may  be  seen  in  pri- 
vate collections  a  Madonna  or  a  Predella  by  him,  and 
he  was  also  the  artificer  of  a  beautifully  carved  statu- 
ette of  the  Infant  Jesus  in  the  church  of  San  Lorenzo, 
while  a  Magdalen  in  San  Trinita  is  also  believed  to 
be  by  him. 

But  if  not  many  great  works  can  be  attributed  to 
Desiderio,  the  tomb  of  Carlo  Marsuppini  (see  the 
chapter  on  Illustrious  Florentines)  in  Santa  Croce, 
opposite  the  Cavalcanti  Chapel,  in  which  his  master, 
Donatcllo,  carved  his  first  bas-relief,  is  sufficient  to 
keep  his  memory  alive.  The  defunct  Secretary  of 
the  Republic  is  represented  in  a  recumbent  position 
on  a  couch,  clasping  a  book  to  his  breast.  On  each 
side  of  the  richly  decorated  sarcophagus  stands  a 
naked  child  holding  a  shield.  The  base  of  the  tomb 
is  beautifully  carved,  while  the  upper  part  forms  a 
lunette  crowned  by  a  vase,  with  graceful  figures 
holding  heavy  festoons,  which  fall  down  on  either 
side.     Although  the  entire    surface  is  covered  with 

24 


370  FLORENCE. 

ornamentation  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  the  work 
causes  it  to  be  in  very  good  taste ;  and  I  know  of  no 
tombs  in  Florence  which  can  be  compared  to  it,  ex- 
cept those  of  Leonardo  Bruni  and  of  Cardinal  Porto- 
gallo,  Avhich  have  a  greater  variety  of  ornament,  but 
are  not  so  chaste.  Desiderio's  bust  of  Beatrice  d'Este 
is  in  the  Louvre,  and  Baron  Adolphe  de  Rothschild 
has  a  beautifid  Madonna  by  him. 

The  bust  of  Marietta  Strozzi  is  also  a  masterpiece 
of  sculpture ;  everything  in  fact  by  this  artist  should 
be  jealously  preserved,  for  nothing  can  exceed  the 
suavity  of  expression  and  the  charm  with  which  he 
invested  his  creations — notably  in  the  case  of  the  two 
children  holding  shields  at  the  foot  of  Marsuppini's 
tomb.  Desiderio,  who  died  in  1464,  only  thirty-six 
years  of  age,  is  buried  in  San  Piero  Maggiore  at 
Florence,  and  his  worth  Avas  evidently  appreciated 
during  his  lifetime,  as  a  pompous  epitaph,  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  age,  was  prepared,  stating  that 
^'  Nature,  aggrieved  at  finding  in  him  her  superior, 
had  cut  the  thread  of  his  days.  But  the  act  of  ven- 
geance was  in  vain,  for  he  had  immortalized  the 
marble,  and  the  marble  had  immortalized  him." 

YEKROCCIIIO. 

(1435-1488.) 

Andi'ea  di  Micheli  di  Francesco  Clone,  born  at 
Florence  in  1435,  has  rendered  famous  the  hitherto 
obscure  name  of  Messer  Giidiano  Yerrocchio,  the 
goldsmith  to  whom  as  a  boy  he  was  apprenticed.     It 


SCULPTURE.  871 

frequently  happened  that  artists  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury took  the  names  of  their  masters,  or  rather  were 
given  them  by  the  apprentices  of  other  masters,  so 
that  when  they  attained  celebrity  they  still  continued 
to  be  known  by  the  borrowed  name. 

Verrocchio  was  a  very  talented  sculptor,  and  as, 
unlike  most  of  the  ])upils  of  Donatcllo,  he  retained  a 
personality  or  style  of  his  own,  it  was  for  a  long  time 
doubted  whether  he  had  studied  under  that  master  at 
all.  As  a  goldsmith,  he  displayed  great  refinement 
and  imaginative  power,  but  though  he  executed  a 
great  many  works  for  Sixtus  IV.,  most  of  them,  in- 
cluding twelve  statuettes  of  the  apostles,  chasuble 
clasps,  incense-burners,  vases,  etc.,  have  been  de- 
stroyed or  stolen,  and  the  only  one  which  can  give 
any  idea  of  his  talent  is  the  fragment  of  the  silver 
altar  already  described  as  part  of  the  Duomo  treasure. 
Baron  Adolphe  de  Rothschild  has  in  his  possession 
part  of  the  clay  maquctte  for  the  bas-relief  to  the  ex- 
treme right  of  this  altar. 

Verrocchio  was  a  painter  as  well,  and  several  gal- 
leries contain  religious  pictures  by  him,  though  the 
only  one  in  Florence  is  the  ''  Baptism  of  Christ,"  in 
the  Academy.  This  is  not  a  Avork  of  any  great  merit, 
but  Vasari  states  that  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  then  only 
a  lad,  and  a  pupil  of  Verrocchio,  painted  it  '*  an  angel 
with  golden  hair,'^  which  was  so  much  better  than  the 
rest  of  the  composition  that  Verrocchio  resolved  forth- 
with to  give  up  painting. 


372  FLORENCE. 

He  also  made  the  group  known  as  "  The  IncreduHty 
of  St.  Thomas  "  for  the  principal  fa9ade  of  Or  San 
Michele,  and  the  tomb  referred  to  in  the  biography 
of  Piero  de^  Medici  was  also  executed  by  him  in  1472. 
Another  work  attributed  to  him  is  the  equestrian 
statue  of  Colleoni  at  Venice,  Avhich  is  even  superior 
to  that  of  Gattamelata  at  Siena  for  force  of  expression 
and  fire.  Bartolommeo  Colleoni,  Captain-General  of 
the  armies  of  the  Venetian  Republic,  died  at  Ber- 
gamo, bequeathing  to  the  State  his  arms,  horses,  fur- 
niture, silver  plate,  and  a  sum  of  216,000  florins,  upon 
the  condition  that  a  statue  shoidd  be  raised  to  his 
memory.  Verrocchio,  being  the  most  celebrated 
sculptor  in  Italy,  was  applied  to,  and  he  had  already 
completed  the  model  of  the  horse  when  he  was  told 
that  the  rider  was  to  be  done  by  one  Bellano  of  Padua. 
He  was  so  indignant  that  he  broke  the  legs  and  head 
of  his  cast,  and  returned  to  Florence.  The  Senate  of 
Venice  sentenced  him  to  death  shoidd  he  ever  again 
set  foot  on  Venetian  territory,  but  Verrocchio,  from 
the  security  of  his  native  town,  laughed  at  the  decree, 
observing  that  if  he  was  put  to  death  Venice  would 
be  the  loser,  because,  while  the  Senate  could  not 
bring  him  to  life  again,  he  could  put  another  head 
and  new  legs  to  the  statue.  The  Senate  in  the  end 
annulled  the  sentence,  and  gave  Verrocchio  a  higher 
salary  ;  but  he  had  hardly  recommenced  the  work 
when  he  died  after  a  brief  illness.  Upon  opening  his 
will  it  was  found  to  contain  a  clause  in  which  he  asked 


SCULPTURE.  873 

that  Lorenzo  di  Crcdi  miglit  be  allowed  to  finish  the 
horse.  But  the  Senate  intrusted  the  work  to  Ales- 
sandro  Leopardi^  whose  name  will  he  found  inscribed 
across  the  lower  girth  : — '^  A.  Leopardi,  F." 

It  is  an  open  question  whether  Leopardi  merely 
carried  out  the  designs  left  behind  by  Verrocchio,  or 
whether  he  executed  the  whole  work  upon  a  plan  of 
his  own.  The  letter  ^^  F  "  after  his  signature  may 
signify  "  Fudet "  (he  cast  it)^  as  well  as  ''  Fecit "  (he 
made  it),  and  though  the  work  is  spoken  of  as  the 
^^  Colleoni  by  Verrocchio/'  there  arc  some  strong  pre- 
sumptions in  Lcopardi's  favor.  Yerrocchio,  who  was 
goldsmith,  professor  of  perspective,  engraver,  sculp- 
tor, and  musician,  left  behind  him  other  works  instinct 
with  vigor  and  grace,  chief  among  which  may  be  men- 
tioned the  boy  playing  with  a  dolphin,  originally  ordered 
for  the  Careggi  Gardens  by  Lorenzo  do'  Medici. 

The  Bargello  now  contains  his  statue  of  ^^  David,'' 
which,  meagre  as  it  is  in  outline,  is  very  correct  in 
regard  to  anatomy.  There  is  much  originality  about 
this  work,  down  even  to  the  belt  which  the  vanquisher 
of  Goliath  has  round  the  waist.  It  may  be  said  of 
Verrocchio,  in  short,  that  he  was  a  great  and  original 
artist,  endowed  with  a  very  supple  talent,  and  with 
high  qualities  in  every  branch  of  his  profession. 

LUCA  DELLA  EOBBIA. 
(1400-1482.) 
Luca  della  Robbia  was  the  founder  of  a  school  and 
member  of  a  family  devoted  to  art.      Engaged  as 


374  FLOKENCE. 

they  were  in  sculpture  and  majolica- work,  there 
always  has  been  and  always  will  be  a  great  deal  of 
uncertainty  as  to  the  particular  achievements  of  him- 
self, his  nephew  Andrea,  and  his  four  sons,  Giovanni, 
Girolamo,  Luca,  and  Ambrogio. 

Although  Luca  proved  himself  to  be  a  sculptor  of 
great  ability,  he  is  principally  known  to  posterity  as  the 
inventor  of  enamelled  pottery ;  and  as  he  was  the  first 
to  discover,  or  rather  to  apply,  this  beautiful  process 
of  decoration,  all  the  works  of  this  kind  dating  from 
the  fifteenth  century  are  attributed  to  him.  The  pro- 
cess, however,  was  kno^^m  long  before  his  day,  as  it 
was  in  use  among  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  the 
Arabs,  the  Persians,  the  Moors,  and  the  Greeks,  and 
it  cannot  have  been  unknown  to  the  Italians  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  for  there  is  in  existence  a  treatise 
entitled  ''Maravita  Preciosa,"  dating  from  1330,  which 
is  full  of  details  on  this  subject,  and  of  various  speci- 
mens of  early  works,  which  M.  Eugene  Piot  has 
published,  with  plates  and  illustrations  in  his  "Cabi- 
net de  1' Amateur." 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  his  life  that  Luca,  after 
a  long  course  of  experiments,  made  a  practical  appli- 
cation of  his  process  upon  the  splendid  tomb  of  Be- 
nozzo  Federighi  Bishop  of  Fiesole,  in  the  church  of 
St.  Francesco  di  Paolo,  at  the  foot  of  the  Bello  Sguardo, 
employing  painted  potteries,  previously  baked  in  the 
oven  and  covered  with  enamel.  At  first  he  used  a 
pure  white  enamel,  which  covered  the  surface  with  a 


SCULPTURE.  375 

transp«irent  coat  of  protecting  vaniisli.  Afterwards 
he  had  recourse  to  a  bkie  shade  for  the  backgrounds, 
and  a  light  green  sliadc  for  the  soil,  the  plants,  and 
the  accessories.  His  nephew  Andrea  assisted  him  in 
his  decorative  Avork,  and  they  continued  their  experi- 
ments, adopting  one  shade  after  another,  and  gradu- 
ally arriving  at  those  general  combinations  which 
may  be  seen  upon  the  friezes,  altars,  spandrels,  arches, 
and  walls  of  convents  and  churches. 

Much  as  has  been  written  about  the  Robbia  familv, 
it  is  impossible  to  define  precisely  what  share  of  the 
work  was  done  by  its  head,  but  as  he  lived  to  the  age 
of  eighty-two,  and  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  ac- 
tivity, it  must  have  been  large.  At  the  same  time, 
when  it  is  remembered  that  six  of  the  Robbias  were 
actively  employed  for  over  a  century,  and  that  two 
of  them  were  named  Luca,  it  is  impossible  to  speak 
with  any  confidence  on  the  subject.  Still  there  are 
many  pieces  of  enamel  at  Florence  known  to  be  by 
him,  notably  the  exquisite  lavatory  in  the  sacristy  of 
Santa  Maria  Novella,  all  the  medallions  In  the  Found- 
ling Hospital  on  the  square  of  the  Annunzlata,  the 
arms  and  insignia  let  into  the  fagade  of  Or  San  Michele, 
some  of  the  medallions  in  the  Loggia  di  San  Paolo  in 
the  Piazza  of  S.  Maria  Novella,  and  a  number  of  works 
collected  in  the  Bargello. 

As  high  a  testimonial  as  any  to  his  skill  as  a  sculp- 
tor may  be  found  in  the  splendid  series  of  altl-relievi 
ordered  for  the  balustrade  of  one  of  the  organ-lofts  of 


376  FLOKENCE. 

the  Diiomo,  as  a  pendant  to  those  hy  Donatello.  This 
Avas  deservedly  the  most  popular  of  his  works,  for 
though  it  has  not  the  fire  and  bold  character  of  Dona- 
tello's  composition,  it  is  of  matchless  elegance,  and 
well  balanced  in  design.  There  are  a  great  number 
of  Madonnas  by  Luca  in  private  museums  all  over 
Europe,  but  the  finest  are  in  the  South  Kensington 
Museum,  the  Louvre,  and  Berlin.  Luca  died  in  1482, 
leaving  the  secret  of  his  method  to  his  nephew  and 
his  nephew's  four  sons.  The  most  striking  specimen 
of  Robbia-ware  is  in  the  Ceppo  Hospital  at  Pistoia,  in 
the  frieze  representing  the  Seven  Acts  of  Mercy, 
which  cost  Andrea  and  his  son  Luca  II.  eleven  years 
of  labor.  Girolamo  introduced  this  mode  of  decora- 
tion into  France,  and  there  was  a  fine  specimen  of  it 
in  the  Chfiteau  de  Madrid,  just  outside  Paris,  but  it 
has  been  entirely  destroyed.  Some  of  the  fragments 
are  now  in  the  Cluny  Museum. 

THE  EOSSELLINL 

(1409-1478?) 

There  were  five  sculptors  of  the  name  of  Rosscl- 
lino,  all  born  in  Florence — Bernardo,  Domenico, 
Maso,  Giovanni,  and  Antonio.  They  were  all  sons 
of  Domenico  del  Borro,  surnamed  Gambarelli,  and 
Bernardo  and  Antonio  were  the  two  most  famous. 
The  first-named  spent  nearly  the  whole  of  his  life  at 
Rome,  where  he  held  the  appointment  of  Director  of 
Public  Works  under  Kicholas  V.,  but  he  is   so  far 


Dancingf  and  Singfing:  Boys. 

Luca.  Detfa.  Robbia. 


SCULPTURE.  377 

connected  with  Florence^  tliat  lie  erected  tlie  sjiloidid 
tonil)  of  Leonardo  liiMuii  Arctiiio  in  8anta  (,'roce^ 
described  in  a  preceding  cliapter. 

Antonio,  his  brother,  was  surnamed  Dd  Froconsoh, 
after  the  district  of  Florence  in  wliich  he  was  born ; 
and  tliere  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  his  having  been  a 
pupil  of  Donatello.  His  greatest  work  was  the  tomb 
of  Cardinal  da  Portogallo  for  the  church  of  San  Min- 
iato.  This  prelate  belonged  to  the  house  of  Braganza, 
and  had  acquired  such  a  reputation  for  piety  Avhile 
studj'ing  at  Perugia,  that  he  was  raised  to  the  purple 
at  the  early  age  of  six-and-twenty.  Though  a  Portu- 
guese by  birth,  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  Floren- 
tine Republic,  which  employed  him  as  ambassador  to 
the  most  Catholic  King.  He  died  Avhen  only  twenty- 
nine  ;  and  as  he  had  founded  a  chapel  at  San  ]\Iiniato, 
he  stipulated  that  his  body  should  be  buried  tliere. 
The  tomb  which  Antonio  erected  represents  tlie 
marble  ligure  of  the  young  cardinal,  Avith  two  chil- 
dren and  two  kneeling  angels  holding  in  their  hands 
the  emblems  of  victory.  The  medallion  above,  upon 
a  blue  background,  is  singularly  graceful ;  it  has  a 
style  of  its  own,  distinct  from  that  cither  of  Desiderio 
or  Yerrocchio,  and  is  evidently  the  work  of  an  orig- 
inal artist  able  to  maintain  his  own  characteristics  at 
a  time  when  Donatello  was  being  universally  fol- 
lowed. 

The  church  of  ]Monte  Oliveto  at  Xai)les  contains 
another   funeral   monument   by    Antonio    Rosselliuo, 


878  FLORENCE. 

erected  by  the  Duke  of  Amalfi  to  his  wife,  i\[aria  of 
Aragon.  It  is  ahiiost  an  exact  replica  of  the  one  at 
San  Miniato,  with  the  addition  of  a  superb  bas-relief 
representing  the  Xativity  of  our  Lord.  For  the  same 
church  he  carved  a  ^^Resurrection,"  which  is  remark- 
able for  the  number  of  the  iigures,  the  simplicity  of 
their  features,  and  the  softness  of  their  expression. 

If  he  takes  after  any  one  in  sculpture,  it  is  Ghi- 
berti,  from  whom  he  evidently  derived  the  art  of  so 
arranging  his  distances  as  to  be  able  to  graduate  his 
figures  as  in  a  picture,  though  it  is  fair  to  add  that 
he  did  not  carry  this  process  to  an  exaggerated  de- 
gree. 

Bernardo,  born  in  1409,  died  in  1472,  and  his 
brother  Antonio,  born  in  1427,  died  about  1478. 

BENEDETTO  DA  MAIAXO. 

(1442-1497.) 

The  Maiani  form  another  dynasty  of  artists,  archi- 
tects, and  scidptors.  There  were  three  brothers, 
sons  of  Antonio  da  Maiano,  a  Florentine  stone-cut- 
ter. Two  of  them,  Giuliano  and  Benedetto,  became 
famous,  while  the  third,  Giovanni,  having  less  talent 
than  the  others,  is  but  little  known.  Benedetto  com- 
menced his  career  in  Hungary,  at  the  Court  of  Mat- 
thias Corvinus,  a  liberal  patron  of  art  and  literature, 
and  at  first  devoted  himself  to  the  art  o{  Intayslatura^ 
or  the  inlaying  of  wood  of  different  colors,  which  was 
in  great  vogue  during  the  fifteenth  century.     But  he 


SCULPTURE.  379 

soon  sought  a  wider  scope  for  his  talents,  and  as 
sculptor  and  architect  rapidly  acquired  considerable 
celebrity  at  Florence,  his  greatest  work  being  the 
Strozzi  Palace,  commenced  in  1489,  in  the  style  of 
architecture  introduced  by  Brunelleschi  and  Michel- 
ozzo  Michelozzi.  Filippo  Strozzi  began  the  build- 
ing, and  his  son,  also  named  Filippo,  completed  it ; 
but  the  works  were  for  a  long  time  suspended,  and, 
as  II  Cronaca  came  back  from  Rome  just  as  they  were 
about  to  be  resumed,  he  was  asked  to  take  charge, 
and  designed  the  part  facing  the  interior  courtyard, 
as  well  as  the  beautifid  cornice  croAvning  the  whole, 
which  can  only  be  equalled  by  that  of  the  Farnese 
Palace  at  Rome. 

An  intimate  friendship  must  have  existed  between 
the  elder  Strozzi  and  Benedetto,  for  the  latter  be- 
came sculptor  for  the  whole  family,  and  was  the 
author  of  those  beautiful  marble  and  terra-cotta  busts 
of  Fihppo  Strozzi  surnamcd  the  Elder  to  distinguish 
him  from  his  son,  who  came  to  such  a  tragic  end, 
which  were  so  eagerly  bid  for  by  all  the  musuems  of 
Europe  when  they  were  lately  put  on  the  market, 
and  were  finally  purchased  by  the  Louvre. 

Filippo  the  Elder  married  Clarissa,  daughter  of 
Pietro  do'  Medici,  and  falling  under  suspicion  when 
his  fother-in-law  was  exiled,  he,  devoted  friend  of 
freedom  as  he  was,  would  not  take  part  with  either 
side,  and  died  at  Florence  in  complete  retirement, 
having  directed  Benedetto  to  erect  him  a  tomb  in 


380  FLOKENCE. 

Santa  Maria  Novella.  The  sarcophagus,  very  sim- 
ple in  design,  stands  under  a  recess,  with  two  angels' 
figures  holding  up  a  tablet.  Benedetto  had  not  much 
scope  for  his  fancy  here,  but  in  the  space  above  the 
recess  he  carved  what  is  generally  considered  as  his 
greatest  work — a  j\Iadonna  and  Child,  very  similar  in 
outline  to  the  medallions  upon  the  tombs  of  Rossel- 
lino,  Desiderio,  and  Verrocchio,  and  superior  to  them 
in  the  studied  refinement  of  the  modelling.  Bene- 
detto also  left  a  medallion  of  Filippo  Strozzi,  a  replica 
of  the  bust  which  formerly  stood  here. 

His  son,  Filippo  the  Younger,  who  had  emigrated 
during  the  reign  of  Alessandro  de'  Medici,  came  to  a 
tragic  end.  When  Lorenzino  had  murdered  Duke 
Alessandro,  he  repaired  to  Venice  and  induced 
Filippo  to  join  the  Fuorusciti.  But  Cosimo,  son  of 
Giovanni,  who  had  been  chosen  as  Alessandro's  suc- 
cessor, sent  Yitelli  against  the  rebels,  who  were  de- 
feated by  him  at  the  battle  of  Montemurlo.  Filippo 
and  Piero  Strozzi  fought  desperately,  but  the  former 
was  taken  prisoner  and  immured  in  the  ^'  Fortezza 
da  Basso.''  This,  curiously  enough,  was  the  fortress 
which  Pope  Clement  YII.  hesitated  about  building, 
but  which  he  at  last  agreed  to  do  at  the  earnest  re- 
quest of  Filippo  Strozzi,  and  against  the  advice  of 
Salviati,  who  remarked  that  he  might  perhaps  "  be 
digging  his  o^vn  grave." 

The  sinister  prediction  was  verified  to  the  letter. 
It  is  said  that  the  examining  magistrate  endeavored  to 


SCULPTURE.  381 

extract  from  liim  a  confession  that  he  had  been  im- 
plicated in  the  murder  of  Alessandro,  and  that,  though 
innocent  of  that  crime,  he  was  so  fearfid  of  the  con- 
sequences that  he  committed  suicide.  It  has  been 
questioned  more  than  once  wliether  he  had  enough 
cncrgj  to  destroy  himself,  and  the  Mar(juis  dd  Vasto, 
governor  of  the  fortress,  has  been  mentioned  as  his 
murderer.  There  is  a  letter,  however,  extant  which 
Luciano  Scarabelli  has  published,  and  which  is  said 
to  have  been  found  by  his  side  in  the  prison. 

"  To  God  the  Deliverer. 

"  In  order  that  I  may  not  remain  in  the  hands  of 
my  enemies,  who  have  unjustly  tortured  me,  and  in 
order  that  I  may  not  be  constrained  by  the  violence 
of  fresh  tortures  to  say  anything  which  can  affect 
the  honor  of  myself,  my  relatives  and  friends,  as  hap- 
pened the  other  day  to  the  ha[)lcs3  Giuliano  Gondi,  I, 
Filippo  Strozzi,  have  resolved,  at  whatever  cost,  to 
end  my  days.  I  humbly  commend  my  soid  to  the 
infinite  mercy  of  God,  and  I  implore  Him  to  receive 
me  in  the  place  allotted  to  Cato  and  other  virtuous 
men  Avho  have  taken  their  own  lives.  I  beg  the 
governor  of  the  Castle,  Don  Giovanni  di  Luna,  to 
take  a  little  of  my  blood  after  death,  and  send  it  to 
His  Eminence  Cardinal  Cibo,  in  order  that  this  latter 
may  feast  his  eyes  on  it.  He  has  now  no  obstacle  to 
prevent  his  reaching  the  Papal  chair,  to  which  he  has 
so  shamelessly  aspired.     I  beg  him  to  have  me  buried 


382  FLORENCE. 

at  Santa  Maria  Novella,  by  the  side  of  my  wife — if 
Cibo  deems  me  worthy  to  be  buried  in  consecrated 
gromid.  I  beg  my  relatives  to  respect  the  will  which 
I  have  made  in  prison,  and  which  is  in  the  hands  of 
Benvenuto  Olivieri,  excepting  these.  .  .  .  Don  Gio- 
vanni is  to  be  repaid  all  the  expenses  he  has  incurred 
for  mc,  as  I  have  never  reimbursed  him  for  anything. 
^^  And  you,  Cnesar,  let  me  beg  of  you  to  keep  bet- 
ter watch  over  the  interests  of  unhappy  Florence, 
and  to  have  more  care  for  them,  unless  you  have  re- 
solved to  bring  her  altogether  to  ruin. 

"  Philippus  Strozza  Jam  Jam  Moriturus." 
^^  Exorlare  AJiquis  nostris  ex  ossihus  uJtory 

Returning  to  the  Maiani,  it  may  be  added  of  Bene- 
detto that  he  also  did  a  good  deal  of  work  at  Naples, 
where  his  brother  Giuliano  had  been  employed  by  the 
Duke  of  Calabria  upon  the  church  of  Monte  Oliveto, 
in  which  Antonio  Rossellino  erected  the  funeral 
monument  to  the  Duchess  of  Amalfi.  He  also 
carved  the  altar  of  San  Savino  at  Faenza,  his  great- 
est work,  so  far  as  regards  the  number  of  figures  and 
bas-reliefs.  From  Faenza  he  returned  to  Florence, 
where  he  was  employed  by  Pietro  Mellini  to  erect  a 
marble  pulpit  in  Santa  Croce,  the  celebrated  ''  Pul- 
pito  "  in  the  nave,  with  a  staircase  cut  into  one  of 
the  pillars.  Added  to  this  is  the  tomb  of  San  Bar- 
tolo  in  the  Church  of  St.  Augustine  at  San  Gemig- 
nano,  and  a  retablo  for  the  Santa  Fena  Chapel  in  the 


SCULPTURE.  383 

cathedral  at  the  same  place  ;  while  among  the  many 
])iists  by  him  is  one  of  Giotto  in  Santa  Maria  del 
Fiore,  and  another  of  Squarcialupo  upon  the  tomb 
Avhich  Lorenzo  dc'  Medici  raised  in  the  same  church 
to  the  memory  of  that  great  musician. 

MIXO  DA  FIESOLE. 
(1431-1484.) 

Mino  da  Fiesole  must  have  derived  his  second 
name  from  the  fact  of  having  bought  a  residence  at 
Fiesole,  for  he  was  a  native  of  Poppi,  in  the  Casen- 
tino,  and  his  name  appears  upon  the  lists  of  the  Cor- 
poration of  Stone-hewers. 

He  acquired  a  reputation  for  originality  of  style  as 
a  sculptor,  but  his  manner  Avas  always  the  same,  and 
lie  Avas  chiefly  notable  for  tenderness  and  refinement 
of  treatment.  His  work  cannot  be  fully  appreciated 
when  seen  from  a  distance  ;  one  must  examine  it, 
and  note  the  delicate  reproduction  of  the  lines  and 
wrinkles,  the  living  look  of  the  eyes  and  of  the  ex- 
pression. One  of  the  best  specimens  of  his  manner 
is  the  bas-relief  opposite  the  tomb  of  Bishop  Salutati 
in  the  cathedral  at  Fiesole.  This  retablo  is  divided 
into  three  compartments  :  in  the  centre  the  Madonna 
upon  her  knees  with  the  Child  and  St.  John,  and 
on  either  side  San  Lorenzo  and  San  Remigius.  L'pon 
the  entablature  is  a  bust  of  our  Lord,  but  this  is  too 
realistic  in  character,  and  the  best  figure  in  the 
group  is  that  of  the  Lifant  Savior  stretching  out  his 


384  FLORENCK 

hand  to  St.  John,  Mino  da  Fiesole  being  imrivalled  in 
depicting  children  at  play. 

The  retablo  of  San  Ambrogia  is  of  the  same  date, 
and  the  church  of  the  Badia  contains  two  fine  tombs 
by  the  same  master — those  of  Count  Ugo  and  of 
Bernardo  Giugni,  both  of  Avhich  are  evidently  in- 
spired by  the  tombs  in  Santa  Croce. 

Two  other  works  known  to  be  by  him  are  the  very 
poor  bas-reliefs  on  the  pidpit  of  the  Prato  Cathedral, 
executed  in  1473,  just  before  his  third  visit  to  Rome. 
One  of  his  greatest  works,  a  monument  erected  to 
Pope  Paul  11.  by  his  nephew  Cardinal  Barbo,  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  disappeared  Avhen  that  ancient 
basilica  was  demolished,  but  a  few  fragments  of  it 
may  still  be  seen  in  the  crypt. 

At  Santa  Maria  in  Trastevere  is  the  ''  Opus  Mini," 
a  very  elaborate  shrine,  a  replica  of  Avhich  was  done 
by  him  for  the  sacristy  of  Santa  Croce  at  Florence. 
There  are  many  other  works  Avhich  have  been  attrib- 
uted to  him  at  Rome,  but  which,  though  not  unhke 
his  productions,  w^ere  probably  executed  by  pupils. 

Such,  for  instance,  are  the  Borgia  altar  at  Santa 
Maria  del  Popolo,  the  Riario  tomb  in  the  church  of 
the  Holy  Apostles,  the  Sarelli  tomb  at  Ara  Cceli,  and 
that  of  Francesco  Tornabuoni  in  Santa  Maria  sopra 
Minerva.  There  is  a  bust  of  Piero  il  Gottoso  by 
him,  and  several  of  his  busts  are  in  Paris  collections, 
while  the  retablo  in  the  Baglioni  Chapel  in  the 
church  of  S.  Pietro  in  Cassinense  at  Perugia  is  very 


SCULPTURE.  385 

similar  in  character  to  that  of  Santa  Maria  in  Traste- 
vere. 

Mine  died  in  1484  from  the  effects,  it  is  said,  of 
having  attempted  to  move  a  heavy  hlock  of  marble 
in  his  studio. 

AXTOXIO  POLLAIUOLO. 

(1429-1498.) 

There  was,  as  with  several  of  the  artists  already 
referred  to,  a  whole  family  of  architects,  sculptors, 
and  goldsmiths  bearing  the  same  name.  The  most 
celebrated  of  them,  Antonio,  is  credited  with  most  of 
the  famous  works  executed  by  any  Pollaiuolo.  Next 
to  Antonio  in  point  of  celebrity  came  his  brother 
Piero,  his  cousin  Simonc  (surnamed  II  Cronaca)^  and 
the  hitter's  brother  Matteo,  who  was  a  pupil  of  An- 
tonio Rossellino,  and  Avho  died  in  the  prime  of  life.  Ac- 
cording to  contemporary  writers,  the  word  Pollaiuolo 
was  indicative  of  the  trade  of  poultry-rearing  followed 
by  the  father,  whose  proper  name  was  Jacopc^  di 
Giovanni  Benci. 

Antonio,  avIio  was  a  pu})il  of  Ghiberti's  step-father, 
assisted  Vittorio,  Ghiberti's  son,  in  decorating  the 
lintels  of  Andrea  Pisano's  bronze  gate  of  the  Bap- 
tistery. It  was  he  who  carved  the  quail  fluttering 
among  the  foliage  which  is  invariably  pointed  out  to 
visitors  by  the  guides. 

He  also  did  the  bas-relief  of  the  ''  Banquet  "  and 
"  The  Dance  of  Ilerodias  "  for  the  silver  altar  front 
in  the  Duomo  treasure,  working  at  the  outset  of  his 

25 


386  FLOEENCE. 

career  as  a  goldsmith  and  niellist.  Antonio  Pollaluolo 
also  distinguished  himself  as  an  engraver^  his  '^  Com- 
bat of  Ten  Naked  Men  '^  being  well  known.  He  was 
an  able  sculptor  as  well^  having  erected  at  Rome  the 
tomb  of  Sixtus  IV.,  and  that  of  Innocent  YIII.  in  the 
church  of  San  Pietro  in  Vincoli,  which  contains  the 
'^ Moses"  of  Michael  Angelo.  He  did  not  leave  many 
paintings,  but  a  great  many  bronze  plaquettes,  which 
are  to  be  found  in  modern  collections,  reproduce  com- 
positions of  which  he  was  the  author.  The  National 
Gallery  possesses  four  of  his  pictures  :  the  '^  Martyr- 
dom of  St.  Sebastian,"  painted  for  the  Pidci  Chapel 
in  San  Sebastiano  dei  Servi  at  Florence  ;  a  ^^  Virgin 
in  the  act  of  Adoration,"  formerly  the  property  of  the 
Contugi  family  at  Volterra  )  the  '^  Angel  Raphael  ac- 
companying Tobias,"  from  the  cohection  of  Count 
Galli  Tassi  at  Florence ;  and  an  ^^  Apollo  and  Daphne," 
from  the  collection  of  Mr.  W.  Coningham.  The  Uffizi 
Gallery  itself  has  not  so  many  of  his  pictures,  though 
there  is  one  remarkable  portrait  of  a  warrior  arrayed 
in  armor,  very  similar  in  character  to  the  piece  of 
sculpture  in  the  Bargello. 

The  same  museum  contains  the  bronze  relief  of  the 
Crucifixion,  which  is  attributed  to  him,  but  which  is 
more  probably  by  Agostino  di  Duccio. 

In  1484  Antonio  went  to  Rome,  at  the  request  of 
Pope  Innocent  VIIL,  to  execute  the  works  already 
referred  to.  He  died  there  in  1498,  and  was  buried 
in  the  church  of  San  Pietro  in  Vinccli. 


SCULPTUEE.  387 

Ilig-lilj  «is  liis  works  are  now  appreciated,  there  is 
a  good  deal  of  exaggeration  about  liis  style,  which  is 
for  removed  from  the  grace  and  simplicity  of  Dcsi- 
derio,  j\Iaiano,  and  the  Eossellini.  Hitherto  artists 
had  paid  more  attention  to  the  idea  than  to  the  mere 
execution  of  it;  when  the  conception  was  thoroughly 
mastered  it  was  comparatively  easy  to  put  it  into  tan- 
gible shape.  But  form  and  execution  gradually 
came  to  be  thought  more  of  than  the  idea,  and  art  was 
beginning  to  decay  when  the  genius  of  Michael  An- 
gelo  dawned  upon  the  world. 

Before  speaking  of  that  great  master  a  brief  notice 
may  be  given  of  the  last  artists  belonging  to  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  Among  them  were  Andrea 
di  Piero  Ferucci  (1465-1526),  who  began  the  tomb 
of  Antonio  Strozzi  in  Sta.  Maria  Novella,  and  erected 
that  of  Marcilio  Ficino  in  the  Duomo ;  Francesco 
Ferucci,  surnamed  Cecca  del  Tadda,who  was  a  very 
skilful  worker  of  porphyry,  and  the  carver  of  a  statue 
of  Justice  upon  a  column  in  the  Piazza  della  Santa 
Trinita ;  and  Baccio  Sinibaldi  da  Montelupo  (1469- 
1535),  the  author  of  a  bronze  statue  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist  at  Or  San  Michele,  and  possibly  of  a  statue 
of  ^lars  on  the  tomb  of  Benedetto  Pesaro,  in  the 
Frari  Church  at  Venice. 

ANDREA  COXTUCCI  (SAXSOVIXO). 
(1460-1529.) 

Andrea  Contucci  del  Monte  San  Savino  (1460- 
1529),  architect  and  sculptor,  visited  Spain  and  Por- 


388  FLORENCE. 

tugal^  and  there  are  a  statue  of  St.  Mark  and  a  bronze 
bas-relief  executed  by  him  at  Coimbra.  He  carved 
the  baptismal  font  in  the  Baptistery  at  Yolterra,  a 
Madonna  and  Child  for  the  Cathedral  at  Genoa,  and 
the  group  representing  the  Baptism  of  Christ  over 
one  of  the  gates  of  the  Florence  Baptistery,  with  the 
exception  of  the  angel,  which  is  said  to  be  by  Spi- 
nazzi.  At  Rome  Contucci  erected  the  tombs  of  Car- 
dinal G.  B.  della  Rovere  and  Cardinal  Ascanio  Maria 
Sforza,  behind  the  high  altar  in  Santa  Maria  del 
Popolo,  the  various  portions  of  which,  examined  ajDart, 
are  very  handsome,  but  which  as  a  whole  are  wanting 
in  harmony. 

From  Rome  Contucci  went  to  Loretto,  where  lie 
carved  the  bas-reliefs  on  the  temple  enclosing  the 
Santa  Casa,  which,  interesting  as  they  are,  cannot  be 
compared  with  the  work  of  some  of  the  sculptors  of 
the  early  Renaissance. 

Another  Florentine,  jACOro  Di  Axtonio  Tatti 
(1477-1570),  took  the  name  of  his  master  Sansovino, 
and  became  famous  in  Venice  as  Sansovino. 

Then  we  have  Giuliaxo  da  San  Gallo  (1445- 
1516),  and  Fkancesco  da  San  Gallo  (1493-1570). 
The  first  named  was  the  scidptor  of  Sassetti's  tomb  in 
Santa  Trinita,  under  the  fresco  by  Ghirlandajo  ;  while 
the  second  was  the  author  of  the  statue  of  the  Bishop 
of  Cortona,  in  the  middle  of  the  pavement  of  one  of 
the  chapels  at  the  Certosa  of  the  Val  d'Emo  ;  of  the 
group  of  the  Virgin   and  Child  and  St.  Anne  in  Or 


SCULPTURE.  389 

San  Micliele  ,•  of  the  tomb  of  Bishop  Angelo  !Marzi, 
on  the  steps  of  the  ahar  of  the  Annunziata ;  of  the 
statue  of  Paolo  Giovio  at  the  entrance  to  the  basilica 
of  San  Lorenzo  from  the  cloister ;  and  of  the  mon- 
ument to  Piero  de'  Medici  in  the  convent  of  Monte 
Casino.  This  latter  artist  was  unquestionably  much 
influenced  in  his  style  by  Michael  Angelo,  as  may  be 
seen  by  comparing  his  work  with  that  of  the  master. 

Benedetto  da  Rovezzaxo  (1474-1550)  erected 
the  monuments  of  Piero  Soderini  in  the  Carmine 
Church,  and  of  Oddo  Altoviti  in  that  of  the  SS. 
Apostoli.  His  tomb  of  San  Gualberto  Avas  broken  to 
pieces  during  the  siege  of  1530  in  the  sculptor's 
studio,  all  that  remain  being  the  reliefs  now  in  the 
Bargello.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  he  was  the  sculp- 
tor of  Lord  Xelson's  tomb,  who  died  nearly  three 
hundred  years  afterwards.  Rovezzano  went  to  Eng- 
land to  erect  a  tomb  for  Cardinal  Wolsey,  which 
was  afterwards  selected  by  King  Charles  I.  for  his 
own  burial-place.  After  his  execution  Parliament 
had  the  bronzes  melted  down  and  preserved  the  sar- 
cophagus, which,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  was  by 
royal  decree  utilized  for  the  interment  of  Nelson. 

The  last  sculptor  of  this  period  was  Tokkigiaxo 
(1472-1522),  who  was  a  soldier  of  fortune,  and  who 
became  notorious  by  breaking  the  nose  of  Michael 
Angelo  in  a  studio  quarrel.  He  executed  different 
works  at  Kome,  the  tomb  of  Henry  VHI.  in  AVest- 
minster   Abbey,   and    afterwards    resided    ni    Spain, 


390  FLORENCE. 

where  he  left  behind  him  several  works  in  terra- 
cotta, dying  at  Seville  in  1522.  According  to  tradi- 
tion, he  broke  to  pieces  a  statue  for  which  one  of  his 
employers  refused  to  pay  what  he  deemed  a  fair 
price,  and  the  latter,  by  way  of  vengeance,  de- 
nounced him  to  the  Inquisition  as  having  laid  sacri- 
legious hands  upon  the  holy  images.  This  story  is 
declared  by  QuiUiet  to  be  untrue,  but  in  any  event 
Torrigiano  has  acquired  by  his  attack  on  Michael 
Angelo  a  notoriety  which  his  works,  able  as  some  of 
them  are,  would  not  have  won  for  him. 

MICHAEL  ANGELO  BUONAEOTTL 

(1475-1564.) 

Just  when  Florentine  art  was  losing  the  towering 
figures  which  had  asserted  its  supremacy  throughout 
Europe,  Michael  Angelo  was  born  (March  6,  1475) 
in  the  castle  of  Chiusi  e  Caprese,  in  the  Casentino, 
of  which  place  his  father  was  Podesta.  He  came  to 
Florence  while  quite  a  lad,  and,  like  his  friend  Gra- 
nacci  the  painter,  entered  the  studio  of  Domenico 
Ghirlandajo.  His  first  work  Avas  a  picture  in  dis- 
temper— now  the  property  of  Lady  Taunton — of  a 
Virgin  and  Child,  Avith  St.  John  and  Angels,  Avhich 
in  its  unfinished  state  betrays  the  influence  of  Ghir- 
landajo. 

His  earliest  efforts  were  encouraged  by  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent,  avIio  gave  him  the  run  of  his  collec- 
tions in  order  that  he  might  copy  from  the  antique ; 
and  Avhen  that  prince  happened  to  see  one  day  the 


Vittofia  Colonna. 

Muziano, 


SCULPTURE.  391 

head  of  a  faun,  now  in  the  Uffizi,  and  ascertained  tliat 
it  was  his  own  drawing,  lie  invited  him  to  reside  in 
the  ]\Iedici  Palace.  There  he  lived  in  tlie  society  of 
the  most  notable  men  of  the  day.  Politian  suggested 
to  him  the  idea  of  ^'  The  Combat  of  Centaurs,"  now 
to  be  seen  in  the  Casa  Buonarotti.  The  death  of 
Lorenzo  was  a  cruel  blow  to  the  young  sculptor,  and 
it  is  said  that  when  it  occurred  he  abandoned  his  work 
and  spent  several  days  in  a  sort  of  lethargy. 

Pietro  de^  Medici,  showed  him  equal  favor,  but  he 
missed  that  polished  and  brilliant  society  in  which 
the  most  learned  men  of  the  day  had  discussed  the 
loftiest  and  most  recondite  questions.  "Wishing  to 
remain  neutral  in  the  struggle  about  to  break  out  be- 
tween the  people  and  the  family  of  his  patrons, 
Michael  Angelo  determined  to  quit  Florence,  and 
accordingly  repaired  to  Venice  just  before  the  en- 
trance of  Charles  VIII.  From  Venice,  where  there 
is  no  trace  of  his  presence,  he  Avent  to  Bologna,  where 
he  executed  the  statue  of  an  angel  kneeling,  holding 
a  candelabrum,  before  the  altar  of  the  shrine  of  San 
Domenico.  At  Bologna  he  pursued  his  studies,  and 
copied  the  bas-reliefs  of  Jacopo  della  Quercia  on  the 
portal  of  San  Petronius  ;  these  drawings  he  afterwards 
used  for  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel. 

Sketching  only  the  main  outlines  of  his  mightv 
career,  we  find  that  from  Bologna  he  returned  to 
Florence,  where  he  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  Lorenzo, 
son  of  Piero  Francesco  of  the  younger  Medici  branch, 


392  FLORENCE. 

and  did  the  statue  of  Cupid,  wliich  was  sold  to  the 
Cardinal  di  San  Giorgio  as  a  Avork  of  antiquity  after 
being  liidden  in  the  ground  and  digged  up  again. 
He  went  to  Rome  about  the  matter  of  the  Cupid, 
where  he  executed  another  one — now  in  the  South 
Kensington  Museum — and  a  statue  of  Bacchus  for  a 
Roman  gentleman  named  Jacopo  Gallo.  He  was 
tlien  one-and-twentv,  and  from  this  period  dates  his 
beautiful  Pieta,  now  in  St.  Peter's,  to  which  he  ap- 
pended his  name  because  he  hea^d  some  one  remark 
that  it  was  by  Cristoforo  Solari. 

His  first  stay  at  Rome  was  not  a  very  long  one, 
and  Avhen  he  returned  to  Florence  he  signed  an  agree- 
ment with  Cardinal  Piccolomini  for  some  very  exten- 
sive works,  which  do  not  appear  to  have  been  ex- 
ecuted, as  no  trace  of  them  is  to  be  found.  It  was 
about  this  time  (1503)  that  he  utilized  the  large  block 
of  Carrara  marble  which  the  building  committee  of 
the  Duomo  had  on  hand,  and  which  he  converted  into 
the  beautiful  statue  of  David,  afterwards  placed  on 
the  Ringhiera  of  the  Palazzo  della  Signoria.  The 
''Madonna  and  Child,"  now  in  the  Bargello,  dates 
from  the  same  period,  as  does  the  ''  Holy  Family  "  in 
the  Tribune,  a  harsh  and  unpleasing  picture,  wliich 
has  doubtless  been  spoilt  by  the  ravages  of  time. 

The  celebrated  cartoon  of  the  ''  Battle  of  Pisa," 
now  entirely  destroyed,  but  which  contemporary 
chroniclers  describe  in  such  glowing  terms,  also  dates 
from  about  the  same  period. 


SCULPTURE.  393 

His  fame  as  an  artist  was  growing  greater  every 
day,  and  Pope  Julius  II.  invited  him  to  come  and 
plan  the  mausoleum  wliicli  he  contemplated  erect- 
ing during  his  lifetime  in  8t.  Peter's.  After  a  good 
deal  of  discussion  as  to  the  Lest  site  it  was  decided 
to  pull  down  the  venerable  basilica  of  8t.  Peter's  and 
rebuild  it.  Michael  Angelo  prepared  a  very  ambi- 
tious plan,  included  in  it  being  the  erection  of  no 
fewer  than  forty  statues.  The  Pope  was  so  anxious 
to  see  the  work  begun  that  he  sent  him  to  Carrara  to 
superintend  the  cutting  out  of  the  marbles,  and  here 
he  remained  six  months.  Upon  his  return  he  fitted 
up  a  studio  near  the  Vatican,  and  the  Pope,  who  had 
d  temporary  bridge  made  leading  from  his  apartments 
to  this  studio,  often  came  to  sec  how  the  work  pro- 
gressed. It  was  here  that  he  made  the  rough 
sketches  for  his  ''  Moses  "  in  the  church  of  San  Pietro 
in  Vincoli,  his  ^^  Two  Prisoners,"  and  the  statue  of 
Victory  for  the  tomb  of  Julius.  When  he  had  been 
nine  months  at  this  work  the  Pope  changed  his  mind, 
and  upon  his  asking  for  payment  he  was  so  rudely 
treated  by  the  officials  that  he  wrote  to  the  Pope, 
'^  Driven  out  of  your  palace  this  morning  by  the  ex- 
press orders  of  your  Hohness,  I  take  the  liberty  of 
saying  that  if  you  happen  to  require  me  at  any  future 
time,  you  will  have  to  look  for  me  elsewhere  than  at 
Rome."  This  was  no  idle  threat,  as  he  set  out  forth- 
with for  Florence,  and  though  messengers  on  horse- 
back were  sent  after  him  refused  to  return.     Upon  his 


394  FLOKENCE. 

arrival  at  Florence  three  official  requests  were  ad- 
dressed to  the  Signoria,  asking  them  to  compel  him  to 
come  back^  and  the  Florentines  were  afraid  that  the 
Pope,  who  was  then  marching  at  the  head  of  his  army 
against  Bologna  and  Perugia  in  revolt,  would  declare 
war  against  the  citv.  Michael  Angelo  was  thinking 
of  starting  for  Constantinople,  as  the  Sidtan  had 
asked  him  to  come  and  throw  a  bridge  from  the 
suburbs  of  Pera  to  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  ;  but  just  then  the  Pope  entered  Bologna,  and 
sent  the  Cardinal  Legate  to  the  Signoria  with  power 
to  negotiate  for  the  great  artist's  return.  An  inter- 
view between  the  Pope  and  the  sculptor  then  fol- 
lowed, and  it  was  during  this  interview  that  the 
former  vented  his  displeasure  upon  one  of  the  i\Ion- 
signori,  who,  without  meaning  any  harm,  remarked 
that  Michael  Angelo  had  erred  through  ignorance, 
"  because  men  of  that  sort  do  not  understand  any- 
thing outside  their  calling.''  The  outcome  of  the  re- 
conciliation was  the  erection  of  the  bronze  statue  of 
the  Pope  on  the  Piazza  of  Bologna,  the  sculptor  obey- 
ing the  Pope's  behest  to  '^  put  a  sword,  not  a  book, 
in  my  hand,  for  I  have  no  pretensions  to  learning." 
This  statue  was  destroyed  by  the  populace  when 
Bentivogho  was  restored  by  the  French  troops. 

It  was  Julius  II.,  also,  who  conceived  the  idea  of 
having  the  Sistine  Chapel  decorated  with  frescoes, 
though  Michael  Angelo  insisted  that  he  was  a  good 
sculptor,  but  a  poor  painter.    Nevertheless,  this  work, 


SCULPTURE.  395 

which  lie  brought  to  a  conclusion  in  two  years,  has 
immortalized  his  name  as  a  painter.  With  little  re- 
gard to  method,  and  devoting  his  whole  attention  to  the 
conception  and  form  of  the  work,  he  succeeded  in 
achieving  a  masterpiece  that  may,  Avithout  exaggera- 
tion, be  termed  sublime.  It  is  said  that  being  unac- 
quainted with  the  material  processes  of  fresco  painting, 
he  sent  for  some  very  skilfid  artists  from  Siena,  and 
having  mastered  their  secret,  shut  himself  up,  and 
would  not  allow  even  the  Pope  to  see  what  he  was 
doing  until  All  Saints'  Day,  1509,  when  the  Avork 
being  half  completed  Julius  was  admitted  to  judge  of 
the  effect  and  was  struck  dumb  Avith  Avonder  and  ad- 
miration. The  chapel,  commenced  in  1508,  Avas  not 
open  to  the  public  until  1513,  Avhen  the  Pope  died, 
although  it  had  been  completed  the  pre  Anions  year. 

When  Leo  X.  succeeded  Julius  II.  he  determined 
to  complete  the  basilica  of  San  Lorenzo  at  Florence, 
Avhere  his  ancestors  (the  Medici)  Avere  interred,  and 
IMichael  Angelo  AA-as  obliged  to  spend  fixe  years  of 
his  life  in  tedious  exile  at  Carrara,  procuring  the 
necessary  marbles  for  the  fayade  ;  his  design  liaA^ng 
been  accepted  from  among  a  number  that  Avere  sub- 
mitted for  this  AA'ork,  Avhieh  after  all  Avas  never 
executed. 

From  time  to  time,  as  the  opportunitv  presented 
itself,  he  Avent  on  Avith  the  tomb  of  Julius  II.,  Avhieh 
Avas  evidently  his  favorite  enterprise.  The  reign  of 
Adrian  VI.,  Avho  had  no  liking  for  literature  or  art, 


396  FLOEENCE. 

enabled  him  to  work  at  it  for  a  whole  year  ;  but  when 
Clement  VII.  (Giuliano  de'  Medici)  succeeded  Adrian, 
he  led  a  very  hard  and  feverish  life,  so  nmnerous  were 
the  engagements  forced  upon  him.  Upon  the  one 
hand,  the  executors  pressed  him  to  finish  the  tomb  of 
Julius  II.,  while  upon  the  other,  Clement  YII.  insisted 
upon  employing  him  upon  the  Medici  chapel  at  San 
Lorenzo. 

Amid  these  conflicting  calls  upon  his  time  he  painted 
the  ^'  Three  Fates,"  now  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  which  is 
one  of  the  few  easel  pictures  by  him.  He  graphically 
describes  the  life  which  he  led  at  this  period  in  a  let- 
ter to  Messer  Luigi  del  Riccio,  who  had  acted  as  the 
agent  of  the  Pope  in  these  contracts.  He  says, 
'^  Painting,  scidpture,  fatigue,  and  honesty  have  done 
for  me,  and  things  are  as  bad  as  they  well  can  be.  I 
should  have  done  much  better  if  I  had  started  in  life 
as  a  vendor  of  matches  "  (Zolfanelli).  He  speaks  of 
himself  as  being  a  very  martyr,  and  says  that  he  is 
"  stoned  every  day,  as  if  I  had  crucified  our  Lord." 
The  monument  was  finally  completed  in  a  very  differ- 
ent manner  from  that  originally  intended,  only  one 
statue,  the  Moses,  is  by  Michael  Angelo  himself,  and 
two  of  the  others  are  from  designs  of  his.  "  The 
Prisoners,"  now  in  the  Louvre,  was  also  intended  for 
this  tomb. 

The  two  tombs  in  the  new  sacristy  of  San  Lorenzo, 
which  Clement  VII.  ordered  in  1525  for  the  remains 
of  his  two  relatives,  Giuliano,  Due  de  Nemours,  and 


SCULPTURE.  397 

Lorenzo,  Duke  of  Urbino,  were  executed  with  more 
dispatch,  though  it  took  twelve  years  to  complete  the 
whole  work,  for  during  that  period  Florence  was  be- 
sieged by  Charles  V.,  and  ^Michael  Angelo  laid  down 
the  chisel  to  fortify  the  slopes  of  San  Miniato. 

When  Florence  was  taken  Michael  Angelo  had  to 
fly  from  the  vengeance  of  the  Pope,  but  as  no  one 
else  was  capable  of  going  on  with  the  work  in  San 
Lorenzo,  he  was  eventually  pardoned,  and  returned 
to  complete  the  two  tombs.  Upon  either  side  of  the 
sarcophagus  of  Giuliano  he  placed  the  two  gigantic 
figures  known  as  Day  and  Night,  while  by  the  side 
of  the  sarcophagus  of  Lorenzo,  surnamed  II  Pensiero, 
on  account  of  its  thoughtful  attitude,  he  placed  the 
figures  of  Dawn  and  Twilight.  Opposite  the  altar  is 
a  ^^  Madonna  and  Child,"  quite  after  the  manner  of 
Michael  Angelo,  and  grandiose  in  design. 

The  tomb  of  the  Medici  was  not  finished  Avhen 
]\Iichael  Angelo,  on  Christmas  Day,  1541,  disclosed 
to  view  the  grand  fresco  of  the  ^^  Last  Judgment," 
^'  filling  the  world  with  stupor  and  admiration,"  to  use 
Vasari's  phrase. 

It  was  at  this  period  of  his  life  that  Michael  Angelo, 
then  sixty-four  years  of  age,  fell  deeply  in  love  with 
the  celebrated  Vittoria  Colonna,  ]\Iarchioncss  of  Pes- 
cara,  daughter  of  Fabrizio  Colonna  and  Anna  do  Mon- 
tefeltro,  married  to  Alfonso  d'Avalos,  Marquis  of  Pes- 
cara,  Avho  died  in  1525  of  wounds  received  at  the 
battle  of  Pavia.      Her  influence  upon  him  was  very 


398  FLORENCE. 

great,  for,  lie  writes,  ^^  I  cannot  turn  my  eyes  away 
from  hers  :  I  see  in  them  the  hght  which  guides  me 
towards  God."  He  Hved  for  nine  years  in  her  society, 
burning  with  a  spiritual  passion  which  recalls  that  of 
Dante  for  Beatrice.  When  she  died  he  was  present 
to  imprint  a  kiss  upon  the  cr)ld  hand.  In  a  subse- 
quent sonnet  he  expresses  his  regret  at  not  having 
kissed  her  forehead. 

He  was  at  this  time — about  1547 — busily  engaged 
upon  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  which,  as  he  had  re- 
solved when  he  saw  Brunelleschi's  work,  equalled  that 
of  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore  at  Florence. 

This  great  sculptor,  painter,  architect,  and  poet 
died  at  the  age  of  nearly  ninety,  and  his  remains  were 
claimed  by  Florence,  as  he  had  expressed  a  desire  to 
be  buried  in  Santa  Croce.  Pope  Pius  IV.  was  also 
anxious  to  raise  a  tomb  worthy  of  him  in  St.  Peter's, 
and  the  Florentines  Avere  compelled  to  smuggle  his 
body  out  of  Rome  in  a  bale  of  goods,  as  had  been 
done  by  the  Venetians  with  the  body  of  St.  Mark  at 
Constantinople. 

The  funeral  ceremony  was  a  splendid  one,  the 
Avliole  of  Florence  defihng  past  his  coffin.  Benedetto 
Varchi  pronounced  the  funeral  oration,  and  his  tomb 
was  erected  by  Vasari,  who,  however,  Avas  not  equal 
to  the  occasion.  It  must  be  said  that  his  influence 
was  almost  as  a  matter  of  necessity  prejudicial  to  those 
who  came  after  him,  for,  in  attempting  to  imitate  his 
originality  of  style^  they  only  succeeded  in  bringing 


SCULPTURE.  399 

into  relief  Avliat  may  be  termed  its  defects,  exaggerat- 
ing his  eccentricities  of  posture  and  attitude.  Floren- 
tine art  could  still,  however,  boast  of  several  men  of 
talent,  such  as  Montelupo,  Simone  ^losca,  Lorenzetto, 
and  ]\[ontorsoli,  followed  by  Baccio  Bandinelli,  Tribolo, 
and  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  though  the  name  of 
]\Iichael  Angelo  stands  out  in  the  sixteenth  century 
as  an  exception  recalling  the  galaxy  of  genius  which 
had  illumined  the  fifteenth  century. 

Raffaello  Sixibaldi  da  Montelupo,  who  Avas 
born  in  1505,  and  who  died  at  Orvieto  in  1567,  was 
one  of  the  best  pupils  of  Michael  Angelo,  who  allowed 
him  to  do  some  of  the  statues  for  the  tomb  of  Julius 
II.,  including  those  of  Leah,  Rachel,  one  of  the  Proph- 
ets, and  a  Sibyl.  He  Avas  an  architect  as  well,  and 
held  the  position  of  architect  of  the  castle  of  St.  An- 
gelo— for  which  he  also  executed  a  marble  angel,  now 
placed  inside  the  building — and  assisted  in  the  erec- 
tion of  the  dome  at  Orvieto. 

LoKEXZO  DEL  Campaxaro,  surnamed  Lorenzetto, 
born  June  13,  1490,  and  died  in  1541,  left  but  few 
traces  behind  him,  his  principal  works  being  part  of 
the  tomb  of  Cardinal  Portiguerra  in  the  cathedral  of 
I'istoia,  and  the  statues  of  *"'  Jonas  "  and  "  Ellas  "  in 
the  Chigl  Chapel  at  Santa  Maria  del  Popolo  at  Rome. 
The  first  is  generally  attributed  to  Raphael,  but  the 
truth  is  that  he  merely  designed,  or  at  most  modelled, 
it,  and  that  Lorenzetto  carried  It  out.  This  happened 
often  with  statues  which   are   attributed  to  Michael 


400  FLORENCE. 

Angelo,  though  it  must  be  added  that  the  general 
outlme  of  a  statue  is  the  primary  condition  of  success 
in  sculpture,  and  that  the  hand  which  carries  it  into 
execution  is  of  only  secondary  importance. 

SiMOXE  MOSCA,  a  somewhat  inferior  artist,  worked 
in  Sansovino's  studio  with  II  Tribolo.  He  was  about 
the  same  age  as  Michael  Angelo,  but  he  died  before 
him,  his  principal  works  being  the  decorations  of  the 
Cesia  Chapel  at  Santa  Maria  della  Pace  at  Rome,  and 
those  of  the  Magi  Chapel  in  the  Orvieto  Cathedral. 
Another  of  his  pupils,  surnamed  II  IloscJiino,  ex- 
ecuted for  this  same  chapel  a  group  representing  God 
the  Father  surrounded  by  angels,  a  Visitation,  and  a 
San  Sebastian  of  no  little  beauty. 

Fra  Giovanni  Angiolo  Mont'ORSOLI  is  the  most 
celebrated  of  Michael  Angelo's  pupils  next  to  Mon- 
telupo,  and  the  great  artist  was  five-and-forty  years 
of  age  when  he  came  to  study  under  him  at  St. 
Peter's,  haA^ng  been  grounded  in  his  profession  by 
Andrea  Ferrucci.  Michael  Angelo  employed  him 
prior  to  1527  in  the  new  sacristy  of  San  Lorenzo  at 
Florence,  and  he  was  again  with  him  from  1531  to 
1534,  having  a  share  in  the  erection  of  the  tombs  of 
Giuliano  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici.  He  also  travelled 
to  France,  where  Franyois  I.  Avas  endeavoring  to  at- 
tract ItaUan  artists  and  founding  the  Fontainebleau 
School,  which  gave  such  a  great  impulse  to  the  Re- 
naissance. For  the  Annunziata  at  Florence  he  ex- 
ecuted for  the   Painters'  Chapel  the  stucco  decora- 


SCULPTURE.  401 

tions,  notable  among  which  are  the  figures  of  Moses 
and  St.  Paul.  He  left  works  behind  him  at  Genoa, 
Bologna,  Messina,  Arezzo,  and  Naples.  At  Genoa 
there  is  a  colossal  statue  of  Jupiter  by  him  in  Prince 
Doria's  villa,  and  several  marble  and  plaster  statues 
in  the  church  of  St.  Matthew,  which  arc  more  or  less 
an  exaggeration  of  Michael  Angelo's  style.  The 
celebrated  fountain  at  Messina,  erected  in  the  piazza, 
is  his  ^vork ;  after  completing  it  he  returned  to  Flor- 
ence and  finished  the  Capella  dei  Pittori  in  the  cliurch 
of  SS.  Annunziata.  It  was  there  that  he  was  buried 
on  the  1st  of  September,  1563,  his  funeral  oration 
being  pronounced  by  Michael  Angelo. 

BENVEXUTO  CELLINI. 
(1500-157L) 

There  is  not  a  more  remarkable  figure  in  the  his- 
tory of  Italian  art  than  the  exuberant,  hardy,  and 
brilliant  sculptor  and  goldsmith  whose  career,  resem- 
bling rather  that  of  a  condottiere  than  of  an  artist, 
has  been  related  with  such  a  mixture  of  cynicism  and 
candor  by  himself.  Kot  shrinking  from  crime  in 
moments  of  passion,  he  was  at  times  accessible  to  the 
promptings  of  generosity,  and  the  verdict  of  posterity 
has  not  been  altogether  an  unfavorable  one. 

Born  during  the  reign  of  Cosimo  L,  who  was  a 
warm  patron  of  art,  his  father,  Giovanni  Cellini, 
intended  him  to  be  a  musician.  But  having  at  an 
early  age    developed   a   preference    for   the    plastic 


402  FLOKENCE. 

artSj  lie  entered  the  studio  of  Antonio  di  Sandro 
Involved  in  a  harifffa,  he  fled  to  Siena,  and  thence  to 
Bologna,  returned  to  Florence  for  a  short  time,  an(] 
then  spent  a  year  at  Pisa.  In  1518  Torrigiano. 
who  had  broken  Michael  Angelo's  nose  in  a  quarrel, 
offered  to  take  him  to  England.  He  preferred,  how- 
ever, to  go  to  Rome  with  a  wood-carver  named  Tasso. 
His  life  from  this  point  may  be  divided  into  three  dis- 
tinct periods — Rome,  Paris,  and  Florence.  At  Rome, 
where  he  spent  twenty -two  years,  partly  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Clement  VIL,  he  distinguished  himself  by  the 
execution  of  many  little  masterpieces  of  goldsmith's 
work,  such  as  salt-cellars,  candelabra,  diamond  set- 
tings, gold  medallions  worn  in  head-dresses,  and  coins 
for  the  Pope.  The  clasp  of  a  cope  for  Julius  11.  is 
described  in  detail  in  his  Memoirs-,  the  Pope  paid  him 
36,000  ducats  for  it,  his  only  rival  in  this  kind  of 
work  being  Caradosso  of  j\[ilan. 

Benvenuto  was  present  at  the  sack  of  Rome  by 
the  Constable  de  Bourbon  in  1527,  and  according  to 
his  account  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  defence, 
commanding  tlie  artillery  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
and  discharging  the  gun  which  killed  the  Cardinal 
himself  and  wounded  the  Prince  of  Orange,  though 
this  latter  statement  is  not  generally  believed.  He 
should  have  assisted  at  the  siege  of  Florence,  for 
Orazio  Baglioni,  who  was  in  command  of  the  defend- 
ing forces,  appointed  him  captain,  but  he  fled  to  Rome 
and  accepted  employment  under  Clement  VII.     He 


SCULPTURE.  403 

remained  in  Rome  during  the  reign  of  Paul  III.,  but 
liaving  stabbed  the  goldsmith  Pompeo  in  a  fit  of  pas- 
sion, he  had  to  fly.  The  Pope,  however,  overlooked 
the  crime  in  consideration  of  his  great  talents,  but  the 
tragic  occurrence  had  brought  him  into  such  disfavor 
that  he  resolved  to  go  to  France.  Reaching  Lyons  by 
way  of  Switzerland,  Francois  I.  was  glad  to  employ 
him,  but  falling  ill,  he  returned  once  more  to  Rome, 
where  he  was  accused  of  having  made  way  with 
some  of  the  jewels  of  the  Holy  See,  whose  settings 
he  had  melted  down  by  order  of  Pope  Clement  Xll. 
Though  the  charge  was  not  proved,  he  was  none  the 
less  detained  for  two  years  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
during  Avhich  period,  according  to  his  o^vn  account,  he 
became  pious  and  even  ascetic.  He  was  finally  par- 
doned through  the  influence  of  Cardinal  Hii)polytus 
of  Este. 

At  the  urgent  request  of  Francois  I.  he  came  back 
to  France,  and  from  this  period  date  those  beautiful 
jewels,  now  in  the  Apollo  Gallery  of  the  Louvre. 
The  French  king,  of  whom  he  has  left  a  medallion, 
gave  him,  for  a  residence,  the  Hotel  du  Petit-Xesle, 
then  occupied  l)y  Provost  Jean  d'EstouteviUe,  and 
containing  at  the  time  a  distillery,  a  printing-oftice, 
and  a  saltpetre  manufactory.  Benvenuto's  descrip- 
tion of  how  he  took  possession  of  it  forms  one  of 
the  most  curious  chapters  in  his  memoirs.  The  pro- 
vost refused  to  leave,  and  Benvenuto,  always  ready 
for  a  fight,  armed  his  workmen   and  his  two  pupils, 


404  FLORENCE. 

Ascanio  and  Paolo  Romano,  and  laid  siege  to  it. 
Among  the  besieged  persons  was  a  favorite  of  the 
Duchesse  d'Etampes,  who  espoused  his  quarrel,  and 
appealed  to  the  King  for  justice.  A  lawsuit  ensued, 
but  Cellini,  without  waiting  for  a  legal  decision,  at- 
tacked his  adversaries  with  the  sword. 

Francois  I.  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Cellini, 
and  it  was  in  France  that  he  executed  his  first  im- 
portant piece  of  sculpture.  This  was  at  Fontainebleau, 
where  he  represented  over  the  grand  entrance  the 
'"''  Fountain  of  Pure  AVater,"  a  nymph  crowned  with 
fruits  floating  upon  the  water,  her  left  arm  encircling 
the  neck  of  an  antlered  stag,  while  the  right  hand 
rests  upon  a  vase  from  Avhich  flows  a  stream  of  Avater, 
at  which  wild  boar,  deer,  and  hounds  are  drinking. 

This  work,  which  is  not  up  to  the  standard  of  his 
ability,  was  presented  to  Diane  de  Poitiers  by  Henry 
11.  after  the  King's  death,  and  she  had  it  placed  above 
the  gateway  of  the  Chateau  d'Anet,  whence  it  Avas 
removed  by  M.  Lenoir,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
to  the  Museum  of  the  Augustins,  and  thence  to  the 
Renaissance  Rooms  in  tlie  Louvre. 

The  Ambras  Collection  at  Vienna  contains  the  cele- 
brated salt-cellar  executed  for  Cardinal  Hippolytus 
of  Este,  and  presented  by  him  to  Frangois  L,  being 
afterwards  given  by  Charles  IX.  to  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand,  uncle  of  his  betrothed,  the  daughter  of 
^Maximilian  HI. 

CeUini  had  another  outburst  of  temper  at  Fontaine- 


Perseus* 

Betwenuio  Cellini, 


SCULPTURE.  405 

bleau,  where  Francois  I.  asked  both  liim  and  Prima- 
ticcio  to  prepare  plans  of  a  fountain  for  the  gardens 
of  a  chateau  ;  and  Avlien  the  latter  was  entrusted  with 
the  work,  Cellini  threatened  to  '^  kill  him  like  a  dog." 
Francois  I.  once  more  overlooked  the  offence,  but  he 
did  not  make  any  resistance  to  his  departure  when 
Cardinal  da  Ferrara  sent  for  him. 

Cellini  now  proceeded  to  Poggio  a  Cajano,  and 
presented  himself  to  Cosimo  de'  Medici.  He  was 
kindly  received,  and  told  to  prepare  the  model  for  a 
statue  of  Perseus,  to  be  placed  in  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi 
(see  the  chapter  on  Architecture). 

The  account  of  how  the  statue  was  cast  is  well 
worth  reading  in  Cellini's  Memoirs,  and  the  work,  as 
already  described,  is  the  personification  of  a  certain 
epoch  of  the  Renaissance.  Cellini  had  trouble  in  ob- 
taining sufficient  money  to  complete  the  group,  and 
was  involved  in  constant  quarrels  with  Bandinelli,  and 
Rocci  the  Duke's  Majordomo.  It  is  wonderful  that 
one  so  impulsive  and  irritable  should  have  had  the 
patience  to  write  his  Memoirs  as  well  as  treatises 
on  sculpture  and  goldsmiths'  work.  These  two 
treatises  are  interesting,  inasmuch  as  they  explain  to 
us  the  methods  which  were  in  use  at  the  time  ;  but 
the  Memoirs,  in  spite  of  their  obvious  exaggeration, 
are  much  more  valuable  for  the  light  they  throw  upon 
the  manners  and  customs  of  the  artists  of  the  Renais- 
sance. This  work  has  all  the  charm  of  a  sensational 
novel,  being   a   strange   mixture  of  enthusiasm,  ro- 


406  FLOKENCR 

mance,  shrewd  maxims,  and  precepts  of  art  as  pro- 
fessed by  a  great  artist,  interwoven  with  a  tissue  of 
adventures  worthy  of  some  bravo  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  It  is  infinitely  superior  to  Bonaccorso  Pitti's 
chronicles,  and  though  the  style  is  faulty,  it  gives  a 
vivid  and  fascinating  picture  of  the  existence  led  by 
these  adventurous  men  of  genius. 

He  was  not  destitute  of  generosity  and  gratitude, 
recognizing  the  superiority  of  Michael  Angelo  and 
Caradosso,  and  adopting  the  six  children  of  his 
widowed  sister,  Liberata  Tassi.  He  was  a  poet,  too, 
and  Avrote  several  sonnets,  madrigals,  sacred  hymns, 
love  sonnets,  and  satires. 

He  fell  ill  in  December,  1570,  and  died  on  the  13th  of 
the  following  February,  leaving  his  fortune  to  his  wife 
and  three  children.  He  was  honored  with  a  public 
funeral,  and  buried  in  the  vaults  of  the  SS.  Annmi- 
ziata,  under  the  chapter-house. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  regard  Benvenuto  as  only 
a  skilful  goldsmith  who  had  a  talent  for  combining 
gold  Avith  enamel  and  precious  stones,  and  of  so  pro- 
ducing very  tasteful  compositions,  but  he  possessed 
genuine  ability  as  a  sculptor,  and  only  needed  an 
opportunity  to  show  of  what  he  was  capable. 

BACCIO  BAXDIXELLI. 

(1493-1560.) 

Baccio  was,  like  Cellini,  a  pupil  of  the  goldsmith 
Michael  Angelo  di  Viviano,  and  if  all  that  his  contem- 


SCULPTURE.  407 

porarics  said  of  liiin  was  true,  he  must  have  hcen  a 
man  of  very  contemptible  character.  All  his  works 
were  spoken  sli«^-htingly  of  by  them,  and  even  the  most 
celebrated  of  his  statues  met  with  a  hostile  reception, 
due  more  probably  to  the  mipopularity  of  the  artist 
than  to  the  indifference  of  the  works  themselves. 

Baccio,  however,  enjoyed  the  favor  of  Cosimo  I., 
and  thronghout  the  whole  of  his  career  he  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Medici.  Benvenuto  Cellini  was  one  of 
his  bitterest  enemies,  and  the  Grand  Duke  derived 
great  amusement  from  letting  the  two  artists  attack  one 
another  in  his  presence,  and  exhaust  the  vocabulary 
of  the  fish  market.  It  is  absurd,  however,  to  accuse 
Bandinelli  of  having  destroyed  Michael  xVngelo's  great 
cartoon  of  the  Pisan  war,  for  we  may  be  sure  that  if 
there  had  been  any  ground  for  such  a  charge  Cellini 
would  not  have  failed  to  mention  it  in  his  ^lemoirs. 
His  chief  fault  was  his  vanity,  and  his  arrogant  asser- 
tion that  the  only  artist  who  could  come  up  to  him 
was  Michael  Angelo,  has  gone  much  against  him  with 
posterity. 

The  story  of  his  group  of  ''  Hercules  and  Cacus," 
on  the  Piazza  della  Signcria,  as  told  by  Cellini,  is  very 
amusing.  The  latter  criticized  it  in  the  following 
terms  in  presence  of  the  Grand  Duke  and  of  Bandi- 
nelli, to  whom  he  said,  ^^  If  your  Hercules  had  his 
hair  cropped  he  would  not  have  skull  enough  left  to 
hold  the  brain.  One  cannot  tell  whether  his  face  is 
that  of  a  man  or  a  monster,  for  he  is  half  lion   and 


408  FLORENCE. 

half  ox.  Ills  heavy  shoulders  remind  one  of  the  two 
panniers  of  a  donkey's  pack-saddle.  His  chest  and 
muscles  are  copied^  not  from  human  nature^  but  from 
a  bag  of  bad  melons.''  But,  in  spite  of  all  criticisms, 
Baccio  was  concerned  in  the  principal  works  of  art 
executed  during  that  period.  He  was  the  author  of 
the  copy  of  the  '''  Laocoon  "  in  the  Uffizi,  which  was 
executed  for  Frangois  I.,  but  which  the  latter  ex- 
changed with  the  Pope  for  several  antique  statues. 
At  Santa  Maria  sopra  Minerva,  at  Rome,  he  erected 
the  tombs  of  Pope  Clement  VH.  and  Leo  X.,  orders 
obtained  through  the  influence  of  the  Medici.  He 
also  executed  a  statue  of  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  sur- 
named  delle  Bande  Nere.  And  there  are  a  number 
of  his  works  in  Santa  Croce,  the  Cathedral,  and  the 
Palazzo  Vecchio.  Held  in  too  high  esteem  by  Cosimo 
de'  Medici,  and  underrated  by  posterity,  the  impartial 
critic  must  strike  the  happy  mean. 

BARTOLOMMEO  AMMANATI. 

(1511-1592.) 

This  artist  was  at  one  time  a  pupil  of  Bandinelli,  but 
unable  to  put  up  with  his  violent  behavior,  he  went  to 
study  under  Jacopo  Sansovino  at  Venice,  where  he 
imbibed  many  of  the  principles  of  the  Venetian 
school,  as  may  be  gathered  from  his  different  com- 
positions. He  was  one  of  Sansovino's  assistants  in 
the  decorations  of  the  Library  of  St.  Mark,  which 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  monuments  in  Venice, 


SCULPTURE.  409 

and  there  lie  had  fur  comrades  Cataneo  and  Ales- 
sandro  Vittoria.  Upon  his  return  from  Venice,  liis 
first  great  work  Avas  tlie  tomb  of  Duke  Francesco 
Maria,  whicli  has  disappeared  from  the  8anta  Chiara 
Church  at  Urbino  in  which  it  formerly  stood.  lie 
also  erected  in  the  Eremitani  at  Padua  a  very  com- 
plex and  elaborate  monument  to  a  professor  of  juris- 
prudence, one  Marco  di  Mantova  Benavides,  a  Avealthy 
amateur  of  art  who,  during  his  lifetime,  resided  in  a 
splendid  palace,  the  entrance  to  which  was  under  a 
triumphal  arch  erected  by  Ammanati,  who  also  ex- 
ecuted a  Hercules  twenty-five  feet  high  for  the 
Cortile. 

Summoned  to  Rome  at  the  instance  of  Michael 
Angelo,  whose  engagements  were  then  very  numer- 
ous, Ammanati  received  the  order  for  the  tomb  of 
Antonio  de'  j\[onti  and  his  father  at  San  Pietro  in 
Montorio.  He  also  was  the  sculptor  of  the  celebrated 
fountain  at  Pratolino,  and  of  the  colossal  group  of 
Hercules  and  Antaeus  at  Castello.  His  most  impor- 
tant work  as  a  sculptor  was  the  fountain  at  the  corner 
of  the  Ducal  Palace,  with  the  figure  of  Neptune  in  a 
car  drawn  by  sea-horses,  looking  down  upon  a  num- 
ber of  mythological  figures  in  bronze.  This  foun- 
tain, very  pleasing  to  the  eye,  but  devoid  of  all  pre- 
tensions to  classical  outline,  was  erected  by  him  after 
the  work  had  been  competed  for ;  Benvenuto  Cellini 
and  Giovanni  da  Bologna  being  among  the  unsuc- 
cessfid  competitors. 


410  FLORENCE. 

It  is,  however,  as  an  arcliitect  that  Ammanati  has 
the  highest  claims  to  the  admiration  of  posterity,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  speak  too  highly  of  the  bridge  of 
Santa  Trinita,  with  the  noble  proportions  of  its  arches. 
He  also  completed  the  Pitti  Palace  after  Brunelleschi, 
and  the  whole  of  the  Cortile  is  by  him.  He  died, 
universally  regretted,  on  the  14tli  of  April,  1592, 
and  is  buried  in  the  church  of  San  Giovanni,  which 
he  had  so  much  embellished. 

The  idyl  of  his  life  was  his  passion  for  the  beauti- 
fid  Laura  Battiferri,  who  has  been  made  famous  by 
the  verses  of  Bernardo  Tasso  and  Annibale  Caro,  the 
former  of  whom  speaks  of  her  as  ^'  the  pride  of  Ur- 
bino,"  Avhile  the  latter  styles  her  ^^  the  new  Sappho." 
The  Duchess  of  Urbino  was  anxious  to  keep  her  at 
that  court,  but  she  eloped  to  Loretto  Avith  Ammanati, 
and  was  there  married  to  him. 

GIOVANNI  DA  BOLOGNA. 

(1524-1608.) 

This  artist  was  not  the  last  sculptor  of  the  grand 
epoch,  but  he  was  the  last  truly  great  man.  Though 
not  born  in  Florence,  he  was  a  Tuscan  by  affinity,  and 
Florence  was,  so  to  speak,  his  cradle,  as  it  was  his 
centre  of  action. 

He  had  been  successful  in  the  competition  for  the 
Fountain  of  Neptune  on  the  Piazza  della  Signoria, 
but  was  set  aside  in  favor  of  Ammanati,  on  the 
ground  of  his  being  too  young  and  inexperienced  j 


SCULrXURE.  411 

but  it  is  probable  that  tlic  morlel  Avas  afterwards  used 
for  the  fountain  on  tlie  grand  piazza  of  Bologna. 

The  "  Mercury/'  which  is  the  most  popular  and 
graceful  of  his  works,  at  first  occupied  a  very 
prominent  position  upon  the  basin  of  the  fountain  of 
the  Villa  IMedici,  and  remained  there  until  1750, 
when  the  Grand  Duke  Peter  Leopold  I.  restored  it 
to  Florence.  The  celebrated  group  of  the  ^'  Rape 
of  the  Sabines,"  now  at  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  was 
also  one  of  his  early  works.  The  anecdote  of  how 
this  group  came  to  be  called  the  ^^  Rape  of  the 
Sabines,"  after  having  first  been  merely  intended  to 
represent  a  young  man  mastering  an  adversary  and 
taking  away  a  female  captive,  has  been  told  in  a 
previous  chapter.  The  statue  excited  so  much  ad- 
miration in  its  completed  form,  that  John  of  Bologna 
was  declared  to  be  a  fitting  successor  to  Michael 
Angelo.  This  was  exaggerated  praise,  but  John  of 
Bologna  was  in  so  much  request  that  he  had  more 
than  he  could  do,  and  the  list  of  his  Avorks  is  almost 
interminable.  The  artists  of  this  period  did  not 
throw  nearly  so  much  soul  into  their  work  as  their 
predecessors,  so  that  the  only  limit  to  their  produc- 
tiveness was  their  physical  endurance.  Giovanni's 
successive  works  were  the  equestrian  statue  of 
Cosimo  I.  on  the  Piazza  della  Signoria ;  the  group 
of  "  Hercules  and  Xessus,"  which  forms  a  pendant  to 
the  "  Rape  of  the  Sabines  f  the  '^  Mctory  "  group 
in  the  large  room  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio ;  the  ''  St. 


412  FLORENCE. 

Luke  "  in  Or  San  Michele  ;  the  Boboli  Fountain  ;  tlie 
''  Genius  of  the  Apennines,"  which  is  so  conspicuous 
at  the  Lake  of  Pratolino;  the  beautiful  bronze 
"  Venus "  in  the  royal  villa  at  Pretava ;  and  the 
colossal  ^'  Samson  slaving  the  Philistines/'  which, 
originally  in  the  casino  of  St.  Mark  at  Florence,  was 
sent,  with  the  basin  and  fittings,  to  the  Duke  of 
Lerma,  minister  of  Philip  III.  of  Spain.  The  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  while  travelling  in  that  country,  pur- 
chased it  for  Buckingham  Palace,  and  when  King 
George  acquired  that  residence  he  made  a  present  of 
it  to  Sii'  AVilliam  Worseley. 

This  is  far  from  a  complete  list  of  his  greater 
works,  to  sav  nothing'  of  hundreds  of  small  bronzes 
which  are  now  in  private  collections,  and  of  articles 
of  common  use,  such  as  fire-dogs,  etc.  The  destruc- 
tion of  the  bronze  gates  of  the  Pisa  Cathedral,  which 
had  been  melted  during  the  fire  of  1595,  gave  Gio- 
vanni da  Bologna  an  opportunity  of  distinguishing 
himself;  but  though  he  displayed  great  manual  skill, 
his  bas-reliefs  were  inferior  to  the  original  ones. 
He  was  assisted  in  this  work  by  a  Portuguese  monk 
of  the  Dominican  order,  Portigiani,  who  as  a  founder 
had  few  or  no  equals.  His  sculptures  at  Siena  recall 
the  Medici  Chapel,  but  here,  as  in  all  his  other  works, 
the  depth  and  inspiration  fall  short  of  the  outline  and 
style. 

There  is  a  general  concurrence  of  testimony  as  to 
his   having  been   a  man  of  very   estimable   private 


SCULPTURE.  413 

character,  and  when  he  died,  at  eighty-four  years  of 
age,  he  was  buried  with  due  honors  in  the  Madonna 
del  Soccorso  Chapel  at  SS.  Annunziata. 

The  last  great  artists  whose  names  may  be  men- 
tioned are  Tribolo,  Vincenzio  Danti,  Lorenzi  Stoldo, 
and  Paolo  Ponzio  Trebati,  to  each  of  whom  a  brief 
biographical  sketch  is  attached. 

TRIBOLO. 

(1485-1550.) 

The  proper  name  of  Tribolo  was  Xiccolo  Brac- 
cini.  He  first  comes  into  notice  with  a  bronze 
group  for  a  fountain  executed  for  Lorenzo  Strozzi. 
In  1525  he  went  to  Bologna,  Avhere  he  did  twelve 
bas-rehefs  fur  the  door  of  the  cathedral,  whicli  had 
been  decorated  by  Jacopo  della  Quercia.  Like  all 
the  artists  of  the  sixteenth  century,  his  style  betrayed 
the  influence  of  Michael  Angelo.  From  Bologna  he 
went  to  Pome,  where  he  erected  the  tomb  of  Pope 
Adrian  VI.  in  the  church  of  Santa  jMaria  dell' 
Aninia,  and  from  Rome  the  Pope  sent  him  to  Loretto, 
where  he  decorated  the  sanctuary,  the  bas-reliefs  of 
whicli,  it  may  be  added,  are  of  a  connnonplace  and 
almost  vulgar  type.  From  Loretto  he  came  to  Flor- 
ence, where  ^lichael  Angelo  employed  him  upon  the 
Medici  Chapel,  but  falling  ill,  he  went  to  Venice  with 
Cellini,  who  hoped  to  find  work  for  him  with  Sanso- 
vino.  Failing  that,  he  once  more  returned  to  Flor- 
ence, and  took  an  active  part  in  getting  up  the  deco- 


414  FLORENCE. 

rations  for  the  marriage  festival  of  ^Vlcssandro  de' 
Medici  to  Margaret  of  Austria.  Cosimo  I.  employed 
liim  to  make  two  fountains  for  the  villas  of  Castello 
and  Petraya,  and  on  the  marriage  of  that  Prince  with 
Eleanora  of  Toledo  he  erected  a  superb  triumphal 
arch  at  the  Porta  al  Prato.  He  became  a  sort  of 
artistic  master  of  ceremonies,  and,  as  this  was  a 
period  of  great  festivity  in  Florence,  he  never  lacked 
employment.  When  the  son  of  the  Grand  Duke  was 
christened  he  transformed  the  Baptistery  from  ceil- 
ing to  floor,  bringing  the  ^^  St.  John ''  of  Donatello 
from  the  Casa  Martelli  to  surmount  the  temporary 
font  which  he  had  erected. 

Turning  his  attention  from  sculpture  to  hydraulics, 
Tribolo  got  into  serious  difficulties.  Inundations  oc- 
curred during  the  execution  of  certain  works  planned 
by  him,  and  chagrin  at  the  popular  manifestations  of 
disapproval  which  resulted,  is  sometimes  supposed  to 
have  been  the  cause  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
September,  1550.  He  was  one  of  the  leading  sculp- 
tors of  his  day,  surpassed  only  by  Michael  Angelo 
and  Giovanni  da  Bologna. 

VINCEXZIO  DAXTI. 

(1530-1576.) 

Danti  completed  the  marble  group  representing 
the  Baptism  of  Christ  upon  the  architrave  of  the 
eastern  gate  of  the  Baptistery.  It  was  begun — some 
critics    say   only  modelled — by   Sansovino,   and    the 


SCULPTURE.  415 

angel  was  made  by  Spinazzi  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury/ Though  most  of  his  work  was  done  at  Flor- 
ence^ he  was  a  native  of  Perugia,  for  which  place  he 
cast  the  large  bronze  statue  of  Pope  Julius  II. ,  which 
stands  just  behind  the  cathedral.  He  was  a  military 
architect  as  well,  and  left  several  sonnets,  being  alto- 
gether a  very  notable  representative  of  the  Renais- 
sance. 

LoREXZi  Stoldi  was  one  of  the  artists  who  were 
employed  upon  the  Duomo  and  San  Celso  at  !Milan, 
and  what  value  his  sculptures  possess  they  derive 
from  being  imitations  of  the  antique. 

Paolo  Poxzio(1500-157-). — This  artist,  taken  to 
the  Court  of  Frangois  I.  by  Primaticcio,  was  a  natural- 
ized Frenchman,  and  it  was  as  ^'  Paul  Ponce  "  that 
he  modelled  the  stuccoes  for  the  gallery  of  Frangois 
I.,  the  frescoes  in  which  Avere  painted  by  Rosso  and 
Primaticcio,  and  recently  restored  by  M.  Alaux.  The 
Louvre  contains  several  works  of  this  artist,  who  re- 
mained in  France  durino;  the  reimi  of  four  monarchs, 
from  Francois  I.  to  Charles  IX.  The  Renaissance 
IMuseum  contains  his  statues  of  Albert  Pius  of  Savov, 
Prince  de  Carpi^  Charles  de  IMagny  captain  of 
Henri  II. 's  body-guard,  and  of  Andre  Blondel  de  Ro- 
quencourt,  Controller  of  Finance.  It  is  not  known 
whether  he  died  in  France  or  in  Italy,  but  he  must 
have  lived  to  a  great  age. 

One  of  the  last  great  sculptors  of  the  period  was 
PiETRO  Tacca,  a  native  of  Carrara,  who  did  a  good 


416  FLOKENCE. 

deal  of  work  at  Florence.  The  Medici  employed  him 
very  frequently,  and  some  of  the  equestrian  statues 
in  the  court-yard  of  the  Royal  Palace  at  Madrid  are 
by  him.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Giovanni  da  Bologna, 
and  it  Avas  after  a  model  made  by  that  master  that  he 
cast  the  statue  of  Duke  Ferdinand  on  the  Piazza  della 
SS.  Annunziata.  He  was  also  the  author  of  the 
bronze  fountains  which  ornament  the  same  square. 

From  this  time  the  decadence  of  the  art  of  sculpture 
proceeded  rapidly,  and  though  there  has  been  a  revival 
within  the  present  century,  the  last  of  the  long  series 
of  mighty  artists  belonging  to  the  period  of  Avhich 
this  volume  treats  is  Michael  Angelo,  whose  name 
stands  out  as  a  model  of  civic  virtue  as  well  as  of  in- 
spired genius. 


PAINTING.  417 


CHAPTER    IX. 

PAINTING. 

ElCil  in  paintings  as  are  the  Florence  collections, 
and  marvellous  as  is  the  spectacle  of  the  Uffizi  and  the 
Pitti  Galleries,  it  is  not  in  them  that  the  elements  for 
a  study  of  Florentine  painting  are  to  be  sought.  They 
contain,  no  doubt,  many  unique  and  incomparable  ex- 
amples of  the  greatest  masters,  but  the  true  Floren- 
tine art  is  fresco-painting.  In  this  respect  Florence 
is  highly  privileged,  for  there  is  not  one  of  her 
churches  or  public  monuments  from  the  thirteenth  to 
the  seventeenth  century  in  which  some  great  artist 
has  not  left  the  impress  of  his  talent,  and  some  wealthy 
citizen  a  proof  at  once  of  his  liberality  and  piety. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  course  of  a  single  chapter  to 
take  more  than  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Florentine  art, 
and  though  there  is  no  lack  of  material  for  writing  at 
length  on  these  paintings — appealing  as  they  do  more 
vividly  to  the  imagination  than  statuary  does — I  must 
confine  myself  to  indicating  the  march  of  ideas  and 
the  successive  phases  of  their  development,  citing 
various  specimens  of  the  different  masters  to  illustrate 
my  argument. 

The  Uffizi  and  the  Pitti  Palaces  contam  such  vast 
27 


41 8  FLORENCE. 


numbers  of  specimens  of  the  pictorial  art  that  no  ade- 
quate idea  of  them  can  be  gathered  from  the  descrip- 
tions of  specialist  writers.  Here  Avere  gradually  ac- 
cumulated all  the  masterpieces  purchased  by  successive 
members  of  the  Medici  family,  the  liberality  of  the  last 
bearer  of  this  name  converting  these  galleries  into  a 
national  museum,  which,  while  not  perhaps  unrivalled 
as  a  general  history  of  art,  unquestionably  contains 
specimens  unique  of  their  kind,  and  which  no  critic 
of  art  can  ignore. 

The  great  name  of  Raphael  does  not  belong  to 
Florence,  for,  born  at  Urbino,  he  spent  most  of  his 
life  at  the  Vatican.  Still  there  are  many  of  his  Avorks 
at  Florence,  the  Pitti  Palace  alone  possessing  twelve, 
while  in  the  Tribune  of  the  Uffizi  may  be  seen  the 
^^Fornarina,"  the  '^Madonna  del  Cardellino,"  the  por- 
traits of  ^^  Julius  IL,"  and  of  "  Cardinal  Bernardo 
Dovizi  da  Bibbiena"  who  Avas  so  fond  of  Raphael 
that  he  Avished  him  to  marry  his  niece,  and  other 
masterpieces.  The  Cardinal  AA^as  the  author  of  the 
CaJruidrciy  the  first  comedy  Avritten  in  Italian,  and 
Raphael  painted  his  portrait  tAvice,  and  also  painted 
scA^eral  portraits  of  his  niece.  In  the  Pitti  Palace 
hang  his  portraits  of  Maddalena  Doni,  and  her  hus- 
band Angiolo  Doni,  Avho  Avas  a  great  friend  of 
Raphael's. 

Masterpieces  of  sculpture,  AA^hich  furnished  excel- 
lent models,  and  exercised  upon  the  Renaissance  of 
that  art  a  marked  influence,  had  been  bequeathed  to 


Maddalcna  Doni. 

Raphael. 


PAINTING.  419 

the  Italians  by  the  ancients,  but  this  was  scarcely  the 
case  in  regard  to  painting.  Not  that  nothing  was  left 
of  ancient  genius  in  this  branch  of  art,  but  neither 
Pompeii,  Herculaneum,  the  Palace  of  the  Caesars,  the 
tombs  of  the  Volsci  and  the  Etruscans,  nor  the  first 
efforts  of  Christian  art  upon  tlie  walls  of  the  cata- 
combs, had  been  brought  to  light  from  out  of  the 
entrails  of  the  earth  in  which  they  had  been  en- 
tombed for  centuries. 

The  inheritors  of  Greek  art  were  the  Byzantines, 
and  they  were  the  earliest  revivers  of  it  with  their 
mosaic  compositions  at  Rome,  Ravenna,  and  Classa. 
Though  the  art  of  painting  was  shrivelled  up,  life- 
less, and  mummified,  so  to  speak,  the  depositaries  of 
it,  such  as  it  was,  were  these  Greek  artists. 

The  persecution  of  the  Iconoclasts  had  driven  some 
of  them  into  Italy  ;  the  Crusades  had  led  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  more  intimate  relations  between  the 
East  and  the  West ;  and  the  Venetians,  when  desir- 
ous of  decorating  their  city  and  beautifying  their 
temples,  sent  for  artists  from  Byzantium.  A  few 
Italian  artists  had  also  studied  under  the  Greek  monks, 
and  thus  began  the  resurrection  of  painting  at  Rome, 
Florence,  Siena,  Perugia,  and  even  at  Venice,  where 
the  Murano  School  owes  to  them  its  supremacy. 
There  are  no  specimens  of  the  early  })ainters  of  the 
eleventh  century  at  Florence,  and  with  regard  to  the 
miniature  painters,  with  whom  we  have  the  real  tran- 
sition from  ancient  art  to  the  Renaissance  of  paint- 


420  FLORENCE. 

ingj  their  history  is  very  obscure.  The  only  Flor- 
entine painters  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries 
of  whose  works  anything  is  known  are  Rustico  (1066)^ 
Girolamo  di  Morello  (1112),  Marchisello  (1191),  Ma- 
gister  Fidanza  (1224),  Bartolommeo  (1236),  and  Lapo 
(1259). 

In  the  thirteenth  century  a  Franciscan  monk, 
Jacobus  Toriti,  decorated  the  cupola  of  the  Bap- 
tistery, his  name  and  the  date  being  still  legible. 
This  artist  also  executed  the  famous  mosaics  in  St. 
John  Lateran  and  Santa  Maria  Maggiore  at  Eome, 
his  tracery  and  foliage  work  above  the  "  Coronation 
of  the  Virgin  "  in  the  latter  church  being  very  cele- 
brated. 

These  mosaics  are  works  of  great  merit,  the  com- 
bination of  shape  and  colors  testifying  to  his  artistic 
sense.  The  decorations  of  the  Baptistery  were  be- 
gun by  him  about  the  year  1220,  continued  by  Taffi 
in  1294,  and  completed  by  Gaddo  Gaddi.  They  bear 
unmistakable  evidence  of  being  the  work  of  an  artist 
Avho  had  studied  under  the  Greeks,  and,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  Andrea  Tah  was  one  of  their  pupils,  having 
worked  at  the  mosaics  of  St.  Mark's  (Venice),  where 
he  and  his  fellow- workers — one  of  whom,  BufFalmaco, 
has  a  fe^v  works  in  the  Florence  collections — derived 
their  main  inspirations  from  the  Greeks. 

CiMABUE  was  the  iirst  of  the  new  school  of  painters 
in  Florence.  Born  in  1240,  and  said  by  Vasari  to 
have  been  a  pupil  of  the  Greek  mosaic  workers,  with 


PAINTING.  421 

only  the  works  of  Turrita  and  of  Coppo  di  ^larco 
Valdo  as  models,  lie  -was  obliged  at  first  to  follow  in 
their  track ;  but  he  soon  shook  off  their  trammels, 
and  acquired  a  freedom  of  handling  and  a  power  of 
expressing  life  and  movement  which  they  did  not 
possess.  The  greatest  of  Cimabue's  works  is  the 
Madonna  in  the  Kiiccellai  Chapel  at  Santa  Maria 
Novella,  which,  though  still  Byzantine  in  character, 
is  intellectualized,  and  rises  far  above  the  work  of  the 
Greek  niosaicists.  The  Virgin  is  represented  as 
dressed  in  a  red  tunic,  covered  with  a  blue  mantle 
embroidered  in  gold.  Angels  stand  three  deep  on 
each  side  of  the  throne.  Though  there  is  much  to 
criticize  in  the  painting,  both  of  the  ^fadonna  and 
Child,  the  effect  produced  by  it  was  overpowering, 
and  it  has  been  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter  how 
Charles  of  Anjou,  King  of  Naples,  went  in  state  to 
visit  it  while  passing  through  Florence,  and  how  the 
whole  city  crowded  after  him.  When  the  picture 
was  taken  to  Santa  Maria  Novella  there  Avas  a  solemn 
procession  to  the  church,  and  public  rejoicings  ex- 
tending over  several  days. 

^Vith  the  exception  of  another  Madonna  in  the 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  which  adheres  more  closely 
to  the  Byzantine  style,  Florence  does  not  possess  the 
most  important  works  of  this  pioneer  of  the  Kenais- 
sance  artists. 

The  Upper  Church  of  Assisi  is  said  to  have  afl'orded 
specimens  of  the  highest   development  of  Cimabue's 


422  FLOEENCE. 

talent,  but  we  are  obliged  to  take  this  to  some  extent 
on  trust,  as  the  frescoes  are  so  much  injured  by  time 
that  it  is  difficult  to  judge  what  they  originally  were 
like.  When,  however,  it  is  remembered  that  the  art 
of  painting  in  that  day  consisted  in  the  representation 
of  a  figure,  a  frieze,  and  a  procession,  as  in  the  mosaics 
of  the  first  centuries,  much  credit  is  due  to  the  artist 
who  first,  with  the  assistance  of  the  pupils  whom  he 
employed,  represented  Bible  scenes,  and  attempted 
compositions  such  as  those  which  in  a  perfected  form 
were  executed  by  his  successors  upon  the  walls  of  the 
Vatican,  in  the  Stanze,  and  the  Sistine  Chapel. 

Comparing  Cimabue  and  Giotto,  various  writers 
have  described  the  former  as  the  last  of  Byzantine 
and  the  latter  as  the  first  of  modern  painters.  The 
second  part  of  this  dictum  is,  beyond  doubt,  correct, 
and  the  distance  between  Giotto  and  Cimabue  is 
enormous.  The  story  of  how  Cimabue  saw  Giotto, 
Avhile  looking  after  his  flock  of  sheep,  sketching  them 
with  a  piece  of  charcoal  on  a  rock,  and  at  once  took 
him  as  a  pupil,  is  well  known.  If  Giotto's  composi- 
tions are  criticised  in  detail,  or  if  he  Avere  to  be  judged 
by  a  few  easel  pictures  of  doubtful  authenticity  pre- 
served in  the  museums,  it  would  be  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  his  works  came  to  be  so  popular,  or  why 
he  holds  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  history  of  paint- 
ing. But  this  is  not  the  way  to  look  at  him,  and  what 
elicits  so  much  admiration  is  the  spirit  by  which  he  is 
animated,  his  tendencies,  his  breadth,  and  the  genius 


PAINTING.  42:3 

wlilcli  enabled  liim  to  symbolize  an  idea,  and  to  render 
it  palpable  by  transferring  it  from  the  moral  and  })liil()- 
sophical  domain  to  the  world  of  reality  and  fact  bv 
some  striking  imagery.  Thus,  for  instance,  when  he 
represents  the  Catholic  Church  as  a  storm-tossed  ves- 
sel, he  displays  a  power  of  inventiveness  which  ap- 
peals to  the  intelligence.  In  his  "  Life  of  St.  Fran- 
cis," in  the  Upper  Church  at  Assisi,  which  was  one 
of  his  earlier  works,  he  illustrated  the  life  of  that 
saint,  by  representing  various  scenes,  in  each  of  which 
one  or  more  personages  are  depicted  as  taking  part. 
There  is  more  life  and  delicacy  of  touch  in  these  fres- 
coes than  in  those  of  Cimabue,  and  Giotto  already 
showed  that  he  was  a  master  of  posture  and  attitude ; 
as,  for  instance,  when  seeking  to  represent  a  thirsty 
man  coming  upon  a  spring,  he  depicts  him  as  throw- 
ing himself  face  downwards  to  the  ground.  The  fres- 
coes in  the  lower  church,  executed  later,  testify  to  a 
still  more  marked  improvement  in  the  art  of  painting, 
the  color  being  harmonious,  and  the  shade  effects 
transparent  and  light,  though  time  has  dimmed  them 
so  much  that  it  is  impossible  to  reproduce  them  in  an 
engraving. 

As  it  is  my  object  to  describe  the  special  charac- 
teristics and  style  of  each  artist  rather  than  to  write 
his  biography  or  a  catalogue  of  his  works,  it  may  be 
said,  with  regard  to  GiOTTO,  that  he  lent  animation  to 
the  personages  whom  he  painted,  and  gave  expression 
to  the  passions  which  they  might  be  supposed  to  feel. 


424  FLORENCE. 

All  his  characters  carry  their  nationality  on  their 
faces — this  being  a  distinct  advance  upon  the  impas- 
sible and  uniform  type  of  countenance  painted  by  the 
Byzantines — as  in  his  "Raisinir  of  Lazarus"  at  Padua, 
Avhere  it  is  easy  to  distinguish  an  Israelite  and  an 
Arab.  Moreover,  he  is,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  first 
portrait  painter.  In  a  picture  at  St.  John  Lateran 
(1300)  he  represented  Pope  Boniface  YIII.  in  a  stand- 
ing posture,  wearing  his  tiara,  and  attended  by  two 
young  clerks ;  and  among  the  portraits  by  him  in  the 
Bargello,  so  fortunately  discovered  in  1841,  are  those 
of  Charles  of  Valois  cousin  of  the  King  of  Xaples, 
Dante,  Corso  Donato,  and  Brunetto  Latini  the  mas- 
ter of  Dante. 

There  are  few  churches  in  Florence  which  do  not 
contain  frescoes  either  by  Giotto  himself  or  by  one 
of  his  school.  But  Giotto  does  not  show  to  so  much 
advantage  in  his  own  country  as  at  Padua,  Avhere  the 
greatest  of  his  works  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Scrovegni 
Chapel  at  the  Madonna  dell'  Arena,  in  a  series  of 
frescoes  illustrating  scenes  from  Holy  Scripture.  The 
"  Bribery  of  Judas  "  and  the  '^  Crucifixion  "  are  con- 
ceived with  great  dramatic  power,  and  awaken  in  the 
beholder  mingled  feelings  of  terror  and  pity.  His 
friend  Dante  was  at  Padua  during  this  period,  and 
his  presence  doubtless  had  no  little  influence  upon 
this  work. 

Giotto  was  the  painter  of  the  frescoes  in  the 
Peruzzi  and  Bardi   Chapels   at   Santa   Croce.       He 


PAINTING.  425 

visited  many  of  tlio  principal  cities  of  Italy,  and  most 
of  the  Courts.  The  Visconti  invited  him  to  IMilan, 
an  ancestor  of  the  Malatestas  to  Ivimini,  and  Gero 
Pepoli  to  Bologna,  while  he  went  to  Home  to  })aint  a 
portrait  of  Boniface  YIII.  He  spent  some  time  at 
Arezzo,  and  in  1330  he  Avas  at  Naples  at  the  request 
of  King  Robert ;  in  each  of  these  cities  he  made 
many  disciples,  and  effected  a  revolution  in  painting. 
He  set  the  fLishion  of  fresco  pictures,  and  this  is  why 
many  subsequent  Avorks  were  accredited  to  him. 

Giotto  Avas  an  architect  and  sculptor  as  well,  and  in 
1334  he  Avas  charged  AA^th  the  building  of  the  Cam- 
panile at  Florence.  It  appears  certain  that  he  pre- 
pared the  plans  for  the  architectural  part  of  this  edi- 
fice, as  Avell  as  the  draAAdngs  for  all  the  sculptures 
executed  by  Andrea  Pisano.  His  plan  AA'as  not  car- 
ried out  in  its  entirety,  for  he  had  designed  a  pyramid 
similar  to  that  Avhich  surmounts  the  Campanile  of  St. 
Mark's,  but  this,  as  already  mentioned,  AA^as  omitted 
by  his  pupil  Taddeo  Gaddi,  Avho  assumed  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Avorks  after  his  death. 

His  pupils,  in  addition  to  Taddeo,  Avere  Puccio 
Capana  Fiorentino,  Ottaviano  da  Faenza,  Pace  da 
Faenza,  Guglielmo  da  Forli,  Stefano  Fiorentino,  and 
Pietro  Cavalini,  and  some  mention  must  be  made  of 
them,  as  they  Avere  the  stem  from  Avhich  issued  the 
branches  of  the  tree  of  art.  Taddeo  Gaddi  AA-as  the 
son  of  one  of  those  early  artists  Avho  Avere  associated 
with  Andrea  Taffi  upon  the  mosaics  of  the  cupola  of 


426  FLOEENCE. 

San  Giovanni,  and  his  father,  Gaddo  Gaddi,  was  also  a 
contemporaiy  of  Jacopo  da  Turrita,  and  worked  with 
him  at  Rome.  From  his  father's  studio  Taddeo  went  to 
that  of  Giotto,  his  godfather,  and  it  was  to  this  change 
that  he  owed  the  prominent  place  which  he  occupied 
in  the  Avorld  of  art.  He  had  a  cpiick  eye  for  deco- 
rative effects,  and  with  a  good  deal  of  skill  in  outline, 
his  pictures  are,  as  a  rule,  remarkable  for  their  suav- 
ity. The  Baroncelli  Chapel  at  Santa  Croce  contains 
several  frescoes  from  the  '^  Life  of  the  Virgin."  At 
Santa  Felicita  there  is  a  very  graceful  Madonna,  and 
in  the  Spanish  Chapel  of  Santa  Maria  Novella  a  grand 
allegorical  composition  representing  the  ^'  Apotheosis 
of  St.  Thomas,"  surrounded  by  prophets  and  evan- 
gelists, and  trampling  Heresy  under  foot.  This  fresco 
also  comprises  fourteen  figures  representing  the  Sci- 
ences and  Virtues,  and  at  the  foot  of  each  is  seated  a 
personage  who  may  be  regarded  as  the  incarnation 
of  that  particular  gift.  Thus,  for  instance,  Cicero  is 
at  the  feet  of  Rhetoric,  and  Euclid  at  those  of  Geom- 
etry. The  Sacristy  Chapel  of  Santa  Croce  also  con- 
tains an  altar-piece  of  the  Madonna  surrounded  by 
saints,  the  work  of  this  artist. 

Taddeo  Gaddi  was  an  architect  as  well,  and  recon- 
structed the  Loggia  of  Or  San  Michele,  after  the  de- 
signs of  Arnolfo  diCambio,  while  a  still  more  important 
work  was  the  Ponte  Vecchio,  with  its  row  of  shops, 
which  brought  in  such  a  handsome  income  to  the 
town.     It  has  been  noticed  that  the  strongest  floods 


Coronation  of  the  Vif§:in  in  Church  of  S.  Croce* 

Giotto. 


PAINTING.  427 

have  never  affected  the  solidity  of  this  bridge,  and 
it  is  strange  that  a  painter  such  as  Taddeo  should 
have  been  so  well  versed  in  what  we  should  call  civil 
engineering ;  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Com- 
munal Council  employed  him  on  many  important 
works  of  a  similar  kind.  He  widened  the  quays,  re- 
paired the  fortifications,  and  rebuilt  the  Ponte  Santa 
Trinita  (again  destroyed  in  1557),  and  was  so  busy 
that  he  had  to  take  Simone  Memmi  to  assist  him. 
He  also  completed  the  Campanile,  begun  l)y  his  mas- 
ter Giotto,  and,  as  I  have  several  times  mentioned 
before,  modified  the  original  design. 

Taddeo  Gaddi  had  tvro  sons,  Agnolo  and  Giovanni ; 
his  remains  are  interred  at  Santa  Croce,  in  the  first 
cloister,  and  in  the  same  tomb  as  that  erected  by  him 
for  his  father,  the  epitaph  upon  it  reading  : 

Hoc  uno  dici  poterat  Florentia  felix 
Yivente  :  at  certa  est  non  potiiisse  mori. 

Giottino  was  the  surname  given  to  Tommaso 
Stefano,  whose  father,  a  painter  of  some  merit,  was 
a  contemporary  of  Giotto.  The  well-deserved  sur- 
name does  not  indicate  much  originality  on  the  part 
of  this  artist,  avIio,  however,  exercised  no  little  in- 
fluence ;  and  it  is  astonishing,  considering  that  he 
died  at  the  early  age  of  two-and-thirty,  that  he  should 
have  left  so  many  works  behind  him.  The  best 
known  of  them  all  is  the  composition  relating  to  the 
life  of  St.   Silvester,  in  the  Bardi   Chapel   at   Santa 


428  FLOKENCE. 

Croce.  The  saint  is  represented  in  the  act  of  exor- 
cising a  dragon  whose  breath  is  poisonous^  and  a 
monk  who  is  present  is  pressing  his  hand  to  his 
nose  with  a  very  HfcHke  expression.  Filippo  Lippi 
showed  his  appreciation  of  this  work  by  borrowing 
some  of  the  features  in  it  for  his  frescoes  at  Santa 
Maria  Noveha. 

There  are  frescoes  by  him  in  the  Cappella  Strozzi 
in  the  crypt  of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  and  a  Pieta  at 
present  in  the  Uffizi  is  probably  by  the  same  hand. 

When  still  very  young  he  was  intrusted  with  a 
singular  task  by  the  Signoria.  The  Duke  of  Athens 
had  just  been  expelled,  and  in  order  to  stigmatize  his 
memory,  it  was  determined  to  portray  on  the  walls 
of  the  Palace  of  the  Podestas  (now  called  the  Bar- 
gello)  the  Duke  and  his  companions,  with  the  mitres 
of  justice  on  their  heads,  surrounded  by  the  animals 
which  Avere  emblematic  of  his  appetites  and  vices. 
Nothing  remains  of  this  work,  nor  is  there  anything 
to  give  an  idea  of  the  portraits  of  the  Pazzi  con- 
spirators, who,  after  being  hung  by  the  feet,  were 
painted  on  these  same  walls  a  hundred  years  later. 
A  curious  feature  of  these  paintings  was  that  the 
scutcheon  of  the  family  was  given  under  the  effigy 
of  each  person. 

Many  of  the  works  executed  by  Giottino  at  Flor- 
ence have  disappeared,  but  there  is  a  composition 
said  to  be  by  him  in  St.  John  Lateran  at  Rome,  in 
which  the  Pope  appears ;  a  group  of  celebrated  per- 


PAINTING.  429 

sonages  at  the  Orsiiii  Palace ;  and  a  fine  portrait  of 
St.  Louis  to  the  right  of  tlie  high  altar  at  Ara  Coeli. 
He  also  left  his  mark  upon  the  Lower  Church  at 
Assisl. 

Tacldeo  Agnolo  Gaddi  left  two  sons,  Agnolo  and 
Giovanni.  The  first  commenced  his  career  as  an 
artist  at  San  Jacopo  extra  Muros  at  Florence,  where 
he  painted  the  "  Resurrection  of  Lazarus,"  in  what 
Avould  now  be  termed  "  realistic"  fashion.  The  body 
is  represented  as  quite  putrefied,  and  the  expressions 
of  the  spectators  are  supposed  to  be  in  keeping  with 
the  horror  Avhich  they  feel.  It  may  be  remarked  in 
this  connection  that  the  naturalists  of  the  present  day 
have  never  gone  so  fiir  as  the  early  painters,  who 
have  only  been  outdone  in  this  respect  by  the  Span- 
iards of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  these  latter — 
such  as  Ribeira  and  Valdes  Leal — had  a  skill  and 
poAver  which  did  much  to  mitigate  the  repulsiveness 
of  their  delineations. 

Another  important  work  of  Agnolo  was  the  ^'Life 
of  St.  Cecilia"  in  the  Carmine  Church  ;*  and  lie 
painted  for  the  Alberti  fiimily,  in  the  choir  of  Santa 
Croce,  the  "  History  of  the  True  Cross." 

Like  his  father,  he  was  a  skilful  architect,  and  was 
employed  to  repair  and  enlarge  the  Bargello  after  the 
fire  of  1330.     He  went  on  with  his  paintings  at  the 


*  More    generally   attributed   to   Carentino    or    Spinello,    or 
both. 


430  FLORENCE. 

same  time,  executing  several  works  now  preserved 
in  the  Uffizi  and  Academia.  He  also  painted  some 
frescoes  in  the  cathedral  at  Prato,  and  a  Madonna 
and  saints  in  Santo  Spirito  in  Florence  is  attributed 
to  him.  He  is  described  as  having  only  painted 
Avhen  the  fancy  took  him^  as  he  was  rich  enough  to 
be  independent ;  and  his  sons,  who  had  no  taste  for 
art,  went  into  trade,  and  made  a  large  fortune  at 
Venice.  Their  father  died  at  Florence,  aged  sixty- 
three. 

Another  early  painter  of  whom  little  is  known, 
though  he  played  a  very  prominent  part  at  Florence, 
was  BuFFALMACO.  His  surname  or  Christian  name — 
which  of  the  two  it  is  difficult  to  say — was  Buon- 
amico,  and  this  pupil  of  Andrea  Taffi  was  a  very 
jovial  and  humorous  character,  and  was  probably  the 
originator  of  the  studio  jokes  for  which  painters  have 
ever  been  noted.  Boccaccio  and  Sacchetti  have  made 
him  famous,  and  he  is  better  known  for  his  adventures 
than  for  his  works.  Some  of  the  latter,  however,  arc 
to  be  found  in  the  museums  of  Florence,  and  there  are 
frescoes  by  him  at  the  Certosa  near  Florence  ;  at  the 
Badia,  Avhere  he  represented  the  ''  Passion  "  in  the 
Giochi  and  Bastari  Chapel;  and  at  the  Ognissanti, 
where  he  painted  the  ^'  Nativity  of  Christ  '^  and  the 
'^  Adoration  of  the  Magi."  At  Arezzo  he  was  em- 
ployed by  Bishop  Guido  to  decorate  the  baptismal 
chapel  of  the  cathedral.  Vasari  has  drawn  a  very 
fascinating  portrait  of  Buffalmaco,   who   appears  to 


PAINTING.  431 

Lave  been  something  of  a  poet,  and  to  have  written 
very  sprightly  notices  of  his  own  works.* 

His  stay  at  Arezzo  Avas  followed  by  a  journey  to 
Pisa,  where,  among  other  compositions,  he  painted 
the  History  of  the  World,  from  the  Creation  to  the 
Btulding  of  the  Ark.  All  round  this  composition  was 
a  frieze,  with  the  portraits  of  different  personages, 
himself  included.  He  wrote  a  sonnet  descriptive  of 
this  work,  and  Vasari,  in  his  lengthy  biography  of 
him,  describes  him  as  prodigal  in  his  style  of  living, 
and  as  dying  so  poor,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight,  that 
he  was  buried  in  the  paupers'  grave  in  the  cloisters 
of  the  hospital,  1340. 

Taddeo  Gaddi  left  a  pupil,  Venetian  by  birth  but 
Florentine  by  adoption,  named  Antoxio  Vexeziaxo, 
whose  earliest  works,  in  the  Grand  Council  Room  at 
Venice,  have  been  destroyed  by  fire.  He  seems  to 
have  been  rather  badly  used  in  his  native  country, 
and  to  have  excited  the  jealousy  of  foreign  painters, 
so  he  returned  to  Florence,  where  he  was  very  well 
received.     He  did  paintings  at  Santo  Spirito,  San  Ste- 

*  "They  (frescoes  illustrating  the  Life  of  our  Lord,  in  the  Campo 
Santo  at  Pisa)  are  ascribed  to  a  certain  Buonamico  BufTalmaco, 
whose  existence  is,  however,  altogether  doubtful,  as  the  descrip- 
tion of  his  life  by  Vasari  is  a  mere  tissue  of  whimsical  stories." 
Hand-book  of  Painting.     Kiigler,  vol.  i.,  p.  145. 

Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  make  only  a  passing  allusion  to  BufTal- 
maco in  connection  with  the  Pisan  Campo  Santo  (vol.  i.,  p.  4ol), 
and  the  only  work  attributed  to  him  in  Horner's  Walks  in  Florence 
is  a  fresco  in  the  left  aisle  of  San  Miniato,  while  his  name  does 
not  occur  in  Karl  Karoly's  The  Paintings  of  Florence. 


432  FLORENCE. 

fano  al  Ponte  Vecchio^  and  he  was  afterwards  cm- 
ployed  by  the  committee  of  the  Campo  Santo  at  Pisa 
upon  the  frescoes  ilhistrating  episodes  in  the  life  of 
San  Ranieri,  the  patron  of  the  city.  This  was  the 
greatest  work  which  he  executed,  and  it  won  him  a 
high  place  in  the  esteem  of  the  people  of  Pisa. 

From  Pisa  he  returned  to  Florence,  and  painted  a 
series  of  religious  scenes  in  a  tabernacle  in  the  grounds 
of  Nuovoli,  just  outside  the  Porta  al  Prato.  Thence  he 
went  to  the  Certosa,  where  the  Acciaiuoli  family  em- 
ployed him  to  decorate  the  chapel  in  Avhich  their  an- 
cestors were  buried ;  but  this  is  one  of  the  many 
works  which  have  been  effaced  by  the  hand  of  time.* 
Veneziano  later  in  life  gave  up  painting  for  Jbotany. 
He  died  somewhere  about  1387. 

Spinello  Spinelli  was  born  at  Arezzo,  but  there 
are  many  of  his  Avorks  at  Florence.  Baron  Capelli, 
pleased  with  his  style,  employed  him  to  paint  the  prin- 
cipal chapel  of  Santa  Maria  Maggiore.  He  is  also 
supposed  to  have  done  some  of  the  frescoes  in  the  Car- 
mine Church,  as  well  as  a  fine  fresco  of  the  Ascension 
for  the  Santa  Trinita  ;  and  a  number  of  other  works, 
some  of  Avhich  are  noAv  preserved  in  the  Academia. 

He  painted  some  historical  scenes  in  the  Palazzo 
Publico  at  Siena  and  was  commissioned  in  1377  by 
Nerozzo  degli  Alberti  to  decorate  the  Sacristy  of  San 


'■■  Crowe  and  Cavalcasellc  attribute  the  Navicella  on  the  ceiling 
of  the  Spanish  chapel  at  Santa  Maria  Novella  to  this  artist. 


PAINTING.  433 

Miniato  with  scenes  from   the  Hfe   of  St,    Benedict. 
He  died  about  the  year  1410. 

Andrea  Orcagxa  is  not,  perhaps,  so  highly  ap- 
preciated as  he  deserves  to  be,  as  architect,  sctdptor, 
and  painter,  for  he  excelled  in  covering  large  spaces, 
and  his  ideas  Avere  comprehensive  enough  to  embody 
the  vast  subjects  which  he  represented  on  the  walls 
of  many  a  Campo  Santo  and  church.  His  architect- 
ural abilities  were  displayed  at  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi. 
At  Or  San  Michele  we  see  his  Avonderful  sculptural 
gifts,  while  in  the  frescoes  upon  the  walls  of  Santa 
Maria  Xovella  he  gave  free  course  to  his  gloomy  im- 
agination. 

There  is  more  realism  about  Paolo  Ucello,  who 
represented  historical  facts  without  any  of  those  alle- 
gories which  tend  to  confuse  at  times.  His  proper 
name  was  Paolo  di  Dono,  and  it  was  because  of  Ids 
fondness  for  birds  that  he  was  surnamed  U(;cllo.  He 
was  a  Florentine^  not  only  in  style,  but  by  birth. 
Born  in  1396,  he  was,  like  most  of  his  contempo- 
raries, a  goldsmith  rather  than  a  painter  in  his  early 
days.  He  was  employed  in  the  shop  of  Ghibcrti 
Avhcn  the  latter  was  at  work  on  the  Baptistery  gates. 
But  very  few  of  his  own  works  are  known.  At  Santa 
Maria  Novella  there  are  a  series  of  frescoes  by  him, 
and  in  the  Florence  Cathedral  there  is  a  work  signed 
"  Pauli  Ucelli  opus."  This  fresco  is  a  portrait  of  Sir 
John  Hawkwood,  an  English  captain  of  free  com- 
panies, who  was  for  many  years  in  the  service  of  the 

28 


434  FLORENCE. 

Republic.  Paolo  was  fond  of  soldiers,  and  in  the  Casa 
Yitali  at  Padua  he  painted  portraits  of  the  mighty 
men  of  war  so  often  spoken  of  by  Andrea  Mantegna. 
The  Bartolini  Garden  at  Gualfonda  had  until  recently 
a  series  of  frescoes  by  him  entitled  the  ^'  Four  Bat- 
tles,'^ of  which  the  Enghsh  National  Gallery  now  has 
the  "  Battle  of  San  Egidio/'  in  which  Carlo  Malatesta 
and  his  nephew  Galeazzo  appear  side  by  side.  Apart 
from  his  work  as  a  painter,  he  has  transmitted  to  us 
several  facts  of  historical  interest^  and  many  details 
as  to  dress  and  military  equipment  at  Florence  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  Paolo  contributed  not  a  little  to 
the  advancement  of  the  science  of  perspective,  owing 
to  his  having  studied  mathematics  with  Gianozzo 
Manetti. 

His  ^'  Battle  of  San  Egidio  "  is  a  work  Avhich  de- 
serves close  attention,  for  though  it  is  old-fashioned, 
and  the  horses  are  as  stilted  and  wooden  as  the  fig- 
ures of  the  warriors  are  childish,  this  is  the  first  battle 
painted  by  an  artist  of  the  Penaissance — the  first 
composition  in  which  the  laws  of  perspective  are  ob- 
served. This  picture,  moreover,  shows  us  what  was 
the  kind  of  armor  worn  in  the  early  part  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  and  gives  likenesses  of  the  celebrated 
Condottieri,  who,  with  their  free  companies,  played 
such  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  history  of  Italy. 

Masolino  da  Panicale,  an  artist  of  the  same  pe- 
riod, and  a  Florentine  as  well,  gave  a  marked  impulse 
to  the  art  of  his  time,  and  effected  a  considerable  im- 


PAINTING.  435 

provcment  in  tlie  execution.  Until  his  time  all  paint- 
ers employed  a  conventional  perspective,  and  the 
various  personages  of  a  group  were  invarial^ly  hud- 
dled together.  Masolino  was  a  pupil  of  Lorenzo  Ghi- 
berti,  and  one  of  the  twenty-one  assistants  who  helped 
to  make  the  Baptistery  gates.  His  first  efforts  were 
made  at  Rome,  but  falling  sick  of  a  fever,  he  returned 
to  Florence,  where  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  em- 
ployed to  paint  the  Life  of  8t.  Peter  on  one  of  the 
walls  of  the  Brancacci  Chapel  in  the  Carmine  Church. 
This  work  appears  to  have  been  characterized  by 
much  force  and  expression,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
distinguish  what  is  due  to  Masolino,  as  his  painting 
has  been  effaced  by  the  brushes  of  his  successors.* 
Still  he  contributed  his  share  to  the  building,  and 
he  is  credited  Avith  having  been  the  first  painter  who 
could  portray  a  smile,  the  flutter  of  a  garment, 
or  the  lifelike  hue  of  the  flesh  5  while  Vasari  asserts 
that  in  regard  to  the  relief  of  his  pictures,  he  so  de- 
ceived the  eye  that  his  figures  seem  to  stand  out. 

Masaccio,  one  of  the  leading  figures  in  the  history 
of  Florentine  painting,  was  born  in  1402,  and  with 
his  superb  talent,  his  native  elegance,  his  combina- 
tion of  strength  and  suavity,  his  profound  knowledge 
of  anatomy,  and  his  strongly  marked  characteristics, 
he  stands  cpiite  alone.  A  contemporary  of,  though 
younger  than,  Ghiberti,  he  did  not  live  beyond  the 

*  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  consider  that  these  frescoes  are  not  the 
work  of  Masolino. 


436  FLOKENCE. 

age  of  seven-and-twenty,  and  his  premature  deatli 
was  a  severe  loss  to  Florence. 

His  greatest  works  are  in  the  Brancacci  Chapel  in 
the  Carmine  Church.  The  various  restorations  of 
these  pictures  have  robbed  them  of  much  of  their 
interest^  but  disfigured  as  they  are,  one  can  still  form 
some  idea  of  the  nobility  of  the  compositions  by  the 
engravings  Avhich  have  been  preserved  of  them.  For 
a  century  they  were  fruitful  examples,  and  a  school 
of  study  for  painters,  and  not  since  Giotto  had  any 
artist  effected  such  progress  in  the  details  of  paint- 
ing, paving  the  way  for  the  still  more  perfect  crea- 
tions of  a  Leonardo  da  Yinci  and  a  Raphael.  The 
place  of  Masaccio's  burial  is  uncertain,  though  Vasari 
says  that  he  was  interred  in  the  Carmine  Church. 

Another  painter,  whose  works  throw  no  little  light 
upon  the  dress  and  manners  of  the  day,  is  PiERO 
BELLA  Fraxcesca,  who  Avas  bom  in  1416,  at  Borgo 
San  Sepolcro,  and  who,  at  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1492,  was  quite  blind.  His  pictures  and  frescoes 
are  now  very  scarce,  but  he  was  an  active  artist. 
At  a  time  when  portrait  painting  was  so  little  in 
vogue,  it  is  interesting  to  meet  with  the  works  of 
artists  such  as  he  and  Pisanello,  who  portrayed  be- 
tween them  many  princes  and  leading  men.  Piero 
della  Francesca  painted  portraits  at  the  Courts  of 
Urbino,  Ferrara,  Eimini,  Pesaro,  Ancona,  and  Rome; 
and  he  was  a  distinguished  geometer  and  writer  on 
perspective.      His    portraits    are    now  much   sought 


PAINTING.  437 

after,  and  Avhenever  one  comes  into  the  market  it 
fetches  a  high  price. 

Alesso  Baldovixetti  (1427-1499)  is  less  known, 
and  his  works  are  even  scarcer  than  those  of  Fran- 
cesca.  If  his  disfigured  frescoes  could  have  been 
preserved  we  should  have  had  authentic  portraits  of 
the  greatest  men  of  the  day,  for  he  painted  in  the 
Gianfigliazzi  Chapel  of  Santa  Trinita  likenesses  of 
Guicciardini,  Luca  Pitti,  Diotisalvi  Neroni,  Giuliano 
de'  Medici,  Gherardo  Gianfigliazzi,  Messer  Bongi- 
anni,  and  Filippo  Strozzi.  These  interesting  works 
became  more  and  more  injured,  until  they  finally 
disappeared  in  17G0.  The  altar-piece  which  he  did 
for  this  same  chapel  is  identified  by  Crowe  and  Caval- 
caselle  Avitli  the  one  hanging  in  the  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts,  of  the  Trinity  between  two  kneeling  saints, 
and  catalogued  ''  Inconnu."  The  frescoes  of  Santa 
Trinita  were  begun  in  1471,  and  took  him  five  years 
to  finish.  Cosimo  Rosselli,  Benozzo  Gozzoli,  Pietro 
Perugino,  and  Filippino  Lippi  Avere  employed  to 
value  them. 

Up  to  that  time  the  painters  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  treated  sacred  subjects  in  a  broad 
and  philosophical  spirit.  This  was  tlie  case  even 
with  the  most  illustrious  of  them,  such  as  Giotto  and 
Orcagna  ;  but  a  new  school  was  gradually  formed, 
consisting  of  artists  who  were  not  only  religious  by 
doctrine  and  feeling,  but  were  themselves  attached  to 
the  Church.     Fka  Filippo  di  TomiAiaso  Lippi  (born 


438  FLORENCE. 

at  Florence  in  1412^  and  died  in  1469)  was  one  of 
the  first  of  this  schooL  He  was  known  in  art  as 
Filippo  Lippi,  and  he  belonged  to  the  Carmelite  order. 
Brought  up  in  the  Carmine  convent,  he  doubtless 
acquired  as  a  boy  a  taste  for  painting  from  the  fres- 
coes of  IMasaccio  ;  and  when  he  began  to  copy  the 
latter's  work,  he  became  so  imbued  with  his  princi- 
ples, that  it  was  commonly  said  that  Masaccio's  soul 
had  become  embodied  in  him.  In  course  of  time  he 
abandoned  the  Carmelite  convent,  though  he  did  not 
throw  off  the  robe.  In  1452  he  was  chaplain  to  the 
convent  of  nuns  of  S.  Giovannino  at  Florence,  and 
this  benefice  enabled  him  to  pursue  his  artistic  pro- 
fession in  independence.  It  was  customary  then,  as 
it  was  in  France  two  or  three  centuries  later,  to  in- 
scribe the  names  of  the  great  artists  of  the  day  who 
had  taken  orders,  upon  the  list  of  candidates  for 
vacant  benefices,  and  Leo  Battista  Alberti  held  a 
canonry,  which  enabled  him  to  carry  out  the  impor- 
tant works  upon  which  succeeding  pontiffs  employed 
him.  So  numerous  Avcre  the  artists  in  holy  orders 
in  Italy,  that  the  Dominicans  alone  have  formed  the 
subject  of  a  bulky  volume. 

A  curious  incident  in  the  life  of  Filippo  Lippi  was 
his  capture  by  pirates  upon  the  Adriatic  ;  for  eigh- 
teen months  he  remained  their  prisoner,  owing  his 
release  to  the  talent  with  which  he  drew  a  charcoal 
portrait  of  one  of  his  captors.  On  his  return  to 
Florence   he   gained  the   friendship  of  Cosimo,   and 


Madonna  and  Child. 

Filippo  LippL 


PAINTING.  439 

afterwards  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici.  There  is  scarcely 
a  place  in  Tuscany  wliicli  cannot  boast  of  frescoes  by 
him,  though,  as  he  had  a  son  of  the  same  name,  also 
in  holy  orders  and  also  a  painter  of  some  ability,  it 
is  not  always  easy  to  distinguish  between  them. 

It  is  strange  that  a  painter  whose  compositions 
were  so  full  of  religious  fervor  should  have  been  so 
dissolute,  as  he  appears  to  have  been,  but  he  pos- 
sessed some  good  qualities  in  private  life,  for  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  deeming  that  his  tomb  in  the  cathedral  of 
Spoleto — at  Avhich  place  he  died,  while  decorating  the 
principal  chapel  of  the  cathedral — was  not  worthy  of 
him,  after  paying  a  visit  to  it  while  on  his  way  to 
Rome,  asked  that  the  body  might  be  given  up  to 
him.  As  this  request  was  refused,  he  resolved  to 
erect  a  monument  worthy  of  the  defunct  artist,  and 
instructed  Cardinal  Napoli  to  superintend  the  execu- 
tion of  the  tomb,  and  Politian  to  write  the  epitaph  in- 
scribed on  it. 

Li  the  "  Coronation  of  the  Virgin,"  now  in  the 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts  at  Florence,  Fra  Filippo  Lippi 
has  left  a  portrait  of  himself.  He  is  the  figure  with 
clasped  hands  ascending  the  steps  on  the  right;  his 
portrait  may  also  be  seen  in  one  of  the  Spoleto  fres- 
coes. 

Andrea  del  Castagno,  whose  name  has  occurred 
several  times  in  the  course  of  this  work  (1390-1457), 
painted  the  effigies  of  the  Pazzi  conspirators  in  the 
Bargello,  and  so  got  the  nickname  of  ^'  Andrea  degP 


440  FLOKENCE. 

Impiccati."  Several  churclies  in  Florence  have  fres- 
coes by  liim^  which  with  their  firm  handling  and 
dark  tones  remind  one  of  Mantegna  and  some  of  the 
Lombard  painters,  while  in  the  Pitti  Palace  there  is  a 
portrait  of  some  unknown  person  attributed  to  him. 

Bexozzo  Gozzoli, — born  at  Florence  in  1420, — 
died  in  1498,  was  a  pupil  of  Fra  Angelico  at  Fiesole, 
and  helped  him  to  paint  several  of  the  frescoes  in 
Orvieto  Cathedral.  An  indefatigable  Avorker,  many 
of  his  paintings  are  extant  both  in  Pisa  and  Florence, 
the' frescoes  in  the  Campo  Santo  at  the  former  place 
being  possibly  his  greatest  work.  They  consist  of 
twenty-four  scenes  taken  from  the  Old  Testament, 
beginning  with  Xoah  and  terminating  with  the  Visit 
of  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  Benozzi  Gozzoli  called  to 
his  aid  all  the  resources  of  nature,  laying  the  scenes 
of  his  subjects  amid  beautiful  landscapes  or  handsome 
buildings,  and  peopling  his  pictures  with  animals  of 
different  kinds,  horses,  dogs,  and  birds  of  brilliant 
plumage.  The  influence  of  Masaccio  is  perceptible 
in  his  heads,  but  he  has  a  style  of  his  own  in  the  out- 
lines of  his  female  figures  and  in  the  delicate  arrange- 
ment of  the  hair  and  the  draperies.  The  best  known 
of  all  his  works  is  in  the  ancient  Medici  Chapel  of  the 
Eiccardi  Palace,  and  represents  the  ''  Adoration  of 
the  Magi."  The  Magi  are  depicted  as  winding  on 
horseback  through  a  rocky  country  on  their  way  to 
Bethlehem.  Most  of  the  figures  are  portraits  of 
prominent  persons  of  the  day — Cosimo   the  Elder  5 


PAINTING.  441 

Lis  brother  Lorenzo;  Gozzoli  himself;  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent ;  Manuel  Palieologus  ;  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople^  and  many  others  being  rej)resente(l 
here.  He  was  very  fond  of  painting  his  contempo- 
raries, and  in  the  Campo  Santo  at  Pisa  he  placed  Mar- 
cilio  Ficino  among  the  prelates,  with  Argiropoulos, 
the  celebrated  Hellenist,  and  Bartolommeo  Platina. 

Benozzo  Gozzoli  exercised  an  immense  influence 
upon  his  time,  for  the  illuminated  manuscripts  of  the 
fifteenth  century  abound  in  subjects  copied  from  him. 
His  various  compositions  and  costumes,  even  his  pe- 
culiarity of  always  bringing  animals  into  his  pictures, 
are  reproduced.  The  monks  of  the  Campo  Santo  of 
Pisa  were  so  pleased  with  his  work,  attracting  as  it 
did  strangers  from  all  parts  of  Italy,  that  they  erected 
a  funeral  monument  to  him  during  his  lifetime,  with 
the  inscription,  ^4iic  Tmnulus  est  Benotii  Florenthii, 
qui  proximo  has  pinxit  historias  :  hunc  sibi  Pisanor  : 
donavit  humanitas  ]\[CCCCLXXVnL"  This  tomb 
was  erected  in  1478,  but  Gozzoli  did  not  die  until 
1498.  He  is  one  of  those  artists  for  whom  the  pres- 
ent generation  has  conceived  a  great  admiration,  and 
it  may  almost  be  said  that  he  has  been  re-discovered, 
his  fame  having  hitherto  been  obscured  by  th(3  paint- 
ers of  the  sixteenth  century. 

CoSBio  RossELLi  and  Sandko  Botticelli  (1447- 
1510)  were  contemporaries,  but  the  celebrity  of  the 
latter  is  incomparably  the  greater.  Sandro  (the  di- 
minuitive  of  Alessandro)    was    the   son   of  Mariano 


442  FLORENCE. 

Filipepi,  and  took  the  name  of  Botticelli,  from  the 
goldsmith  to  whom  he  was  apprenticed.  lie  Avas  a 
scholar  of  Fra  Filippo  Lippi,  and  united  to  the  vigor- 
ous and  forceful  style  of  that  master  an  original  and 
delicate  fancy,  particularly  noticeable  in  his  allegori- 
cal pictures.  One  of  these  has  a  somewhat  peculiar 
history.  It  represented  Pallas  (the  Wisdom  of  the 
Medici)  leading  a  centaur  (Violence  and  Misrule), 
and  Vasari's  not  very  accurate  description  of  it  was 
supported  by  an  existing  engraving  ;  of  the  original 
painting,  however^  all  traces  seemed  to  have  dis- 
appeared. 

In  the  year  1894  jNIr.  William  Spence  noticed  a 
picture  hanging  in  an  obscure  corner  of  one  of  the 
royal  apartments  in  the  Pitti  which  he  thought  bore 
indications  of  being  by  the  hand  of  Botticelli.  The 
attention  of  Signer  Ridolii  being  called  to  it,  he  un- 
hesitatingly pronounced  it  to  be  the  lost  Pallas.  It  is 
thought  to  have  been  painted  about  the  year  1480  in 
honor  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent. 

Vasari  also  mentions  as  one  of  his  easel  pictures 
the  profile  of  a  woman  Avho  has  always  been  sup- 
posed to  be  the  mistress  of  Giidiano  de'  Medici,  killed 
in  the  Pazzi  conspiracy.  It  is  now  thought,  how^ever, 
that  this  portrait  represents  a  young  Avoman  of  the 
loAver  classes,  the  picture  in  the  collection  of  the  Due 
d'Aumale  being  that  of  the  real  Simonetta.  This 
lady  died  young,  and  her  charms  were  celebrated  in 
verse  by  both   Politiano   and  Bernardo  Pulci.     The 


PAINTING.  443 

former  also  wrote  an  epitaph  on  her.  Lorenzo,  in 
his  notes  on  his  own  sonnets,  describes  the  grief 
caused  in  Florence  by  the  premature  death  of  a 
young  lady  of  singular  beauty,  who  has  been  iden- 
tified as  this  same  Simonetta. 

Botticelli  illustrated  the  "  Divina  Comraedia,"  and 
no  other  painter,  not  even  Giotto,  was  so  thoroughly 
versed  in  the  works  of  Dante,  whom  he  annotated, 
taking  the  subjects  of  several  of  his  compositions  from 
episodes  in  the  ^^  Convito."  He  was  also  an  enthu- 
siastic admirer  of  Savonarola,  and  towards  the  close 
of  his  life  felt  so  strongly  in  his  cause  that  he  would 
willingly  have  suifered  martyrdom  for  him. 

The  round  picture  of  the  Madonna  surrounded  by 
saints  which  hangs  in  the  Uffizi  Gallery  is  a  happy 
example  of  the  peculiar  style  of  this  master.  A  num- 
ber of  his  other  works  hang  in  the  same  gallery,  and 
a  fcAv  are  to  be  seen  at  Paris  and  Berlin.  As  a 
fresco  painter  we  find  him  represented  by  three 
biblical  scenes,  and  the  portraits  of  twenty-eight 
Popes  in  the  Sistine  Chapel,  where  Sextus  IV. 
had  employed  him  to  superintend  the  decoration  of 
the  walls.  A  great  many  artists  were  engaged  upon 
the  work,  and  the  editor  of  Kiigler's  ^^  Hand-book  of 
Painting  "  states  that  Cosimo  Rosselli  having  gauged 
the  quality  of  the  Pope's  artistic  taste,  overlaid  his 
figures  thickly  Avith  gold,  whereupon  ''  to  the  dismay 
of  the  other  artists  his  Ploliness  expressed  himself 
best  pleased  with  Cosimo's  performances." 


444  FLORENCE. 

Botticelli  died  about  the  year  1510^  his  most  emi- 
nent scholar  being  Filippino  Lippi. 

Fra  Giovaxxi  da  Fiesole,  better  known  as  Fra 
Beato  Angelico,  belongs  to  the  school  of  ascetic 
painters  whose  lives  were  spent  in  praising  God  with 
voice  and  brush.  He  was  born  at  Castello  di  Vec- 
chio,  in  the  Mugello,  in  1387^  and  christened  Guido. 
He  entered  the  order  of  the  Preaching  Brethren,  or 
Dominicans,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  and  ended  his 
life  as  a  miniature  painter.  His  first  essays  in  art 
were  made  at  Cortona,  where  several  of  them  are 
still  preserved.  He  was  at  Fiesole  in  1418,  and  for 
the  ensuing  eighteen  years  but  little  is  known  of  him. 
In  1436  the  convent  formerly  occupied  by  the  friars 
of  S.  Sylvester  was  given  to  the  Dominicans,  and 
Fra  Angelico  was  employed  to  paint  an  altar-piece 
and  decorate  the  walls  with  frescoes.  He  spent  nine 
years  upon  this  work,  Avhich  has  made  his  name  so 
famous — helped,  it  is  said,  by  his  brother  Fra  Bene- 
detto, the  series  of  frescoes  painted  there  rendering 
San  Marco  a  very  sanctuary  of  art.  There  are  two 
distinct  categories  of  decoration  in  San  Marco,  repre- 
senting Avhat  may  be  called  ceremonial  and  homely 
painting.  In  the  first  Fra  Beato  depicted  the  grander 
scenes  of  Holy  Writ  with  profound  faith  and  consum- 
mate skill,  combining  simplicity  and  grandeur  of  ex- 
ecution with  the  manifest  sincerity  of  a  great  soul. 
In  the  cells  of  the  convent  he  is  seen  in  quite  another 
light.     Having  lived  in  intimacy  with  the  different 


Peter  Martyr  in  the  Convent  of  S.  Marco* 
Fra.  Angehco, 


•      PAINTING.  445 

monks^  he  knew  the  favorite  saint  of  each,  and  de- 
picted on  the  walls  of  his  cell  some  episode  in  the  Hfe 
of  that  saint. 

After  nine  years  of  this  work  he  was  invited  by 
Pope  Eugenius  IV.,  in  1445,  to  come  and  work  at  the 
Vatican,  where  Nicholas  V.  also  gave  him  employ- 
ment. This  did  not  prevent  him,  however,  from 
going  to  Orvieto,  where  he  commenced,  but  did  not 
finish,  a  series  of  frescoes  in  the  Duomo.  Sum- 
moned back  to  Rome  by  Nicholas  V.,  he  remained 
there  until  his  death  in  1455,  and  was  buried  in 
Santa  Maria  sopra  Minerva.  It  was  said  that  he 
never  took  up  a  brush  without  a  previous  prayer, 
and  it  is  a  pity  that  his  gentle  countenance  has  not 
been  depicted  on  the  walls  of  San  Marco,  as  a  pen- 
dant to  the  portrait  of  Savonarola,  with  whom  his 
name  is  so  closely  associated. 

LuCA  SiGXORELLi  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  one 
of  the  Florentine  School,  for  he  was  born  at  Cortona, 
about  1441,  was  a  pupil  of  Pierro  della  Francesca, 
and  painted  at  Arezzo,  Citta  di  Castello,  and  Orvieto, 
where  he  completed  the  work  left  unfinished  by  Fra 
Angelico.  He  also  painted  at  the  Sistine  Chapel,  but 
most  of  his  works  have  disappeared,  and  his  greatest 
achievement  was  the  decoration  of  the  chapel  of  the 
Madonna  of  San  Brizio  in  Orvieto  Cathedral — a  com- 
position which  inspired  Michael  Angelo  himself,  and 
which  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  powerful 
in  Italy.     Signorelli  took  only  three  years  and  three 


446  FLOKENCE.       . 

months  to  complete  this  grand  series  of  frescoes, 
divided  into  four  separate  compositions — Antichrist, 
Hell,  the  Resurrection,  Paradise.  The  '^Fulminati" 
— destruction  of  the  Avicked — is  a  marvel  of  move- 
ment and  intensity,  the  attitudes  of  the  figures  be- 
ing sublime  in  their  reality. 

Fra  Bartolommeo,  called  Bartolommeo  di  San 
Marco,  partly  because  of  the  part  he  took  in  the 
decoration  of  St.  Mark's  and  partly  because  he  was 
an  inmate  of  that  convent,  was  originally  known  as 
Baccio  della  Porta.  He  was  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  Florentine  painters  of  religious  subjects,  ex- 
celling in  the  grandeur  of  his  outlines  and  the  superb 
gravity  of  his  figures.  Born  at  Sufiignano,  just  out- 
side Prato,  it  was  his  passion  for  Savonarola  which 
brought  him  to  the  convent  of  San  Marco,  where  he 
was  an  assiduous  attendant  of  the  Dominican's  ser- 
mons, forming  one  of  those  who  grouped  themselves 
around  him  when  the  populace  laid  siege  to  St. 
Mark's.  But  if  he  was  a  great  artist,  he  was  not 
very  warlike,  for,  becoming  panic-stricken  at  finding 
his  life  in  danger,  he  made  a  vow  that  if  he  escaped 
he  would  enter  holy  orders.  This  he  accordingly  did 
in  1500  at  Prato,  where  he  assumed  the  robe  of  the 
Dominicans,  and  shut  himself  up  from  the  Avorld. 
For  a  time  he  abandoned  painting  as  well,  but  in  the 
course  of  time  he  returned  to  St.  Mark's,  where  many 
of  his  works  are  still  to  be  seen.  This  was  the  period 
of  Raphael's  visit  to  Florence,  and  the  young  painter 


PAINTING.  447 

of  Urljino  became  a  very  close  friend  of  the  monk, 
passing  hours  at  a  time  in  liis  cell.  lie  went  on  to 
Kome,  while  Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael  were  there, 
marking  his  progress  by  the  execution  of  different 
works  in  the  towns  through  which  he  passed.  Two 
pictures  by  him  in  the  Pitti  Palace  at  Florence  are  thus 
described  by  Yasari '  ''  The  fancy  took  him,  as  it  was 
said  that  he  could  only  paint  small  pictures,  to  prove  the 
contrary,  and  to  place  above  the  door,  opening  into  the 
choir  of  San  Marco,  a  panel  thirty  feet  high,  represent- 
ing St.  ^lark  the  Evangelist ;  the  work  being  perfect 
in  design  and  one  of  real  merit.  After  this  Salvator 
Belli,  a  Florentine  merchant,  hearing,  on  his  return 
from  Naples,  of  Fra  Bartolommeo's  talent,  and  having 
seen  some  of  his  works,  ordered  from  him  another,  a 
])icture  of  our  Saviour — as  symbolic  of  his  own  name 
— surrounded  by  the  four  Evangelists.  There  arc 
also  in  this  composition  two  children  holding  up  the 
globe,  and  their  fresh  coloring  is  like  the  rest  of 
the  work,  admirably  rendered.''  These  painters,  who 
belonged  to  the  religious  orders,  are  very  numerous 
in  the  history  of  art ;  they  Avere  all  given  a  dispen- 
sation from  their  duties  in  the  convent,  and  what  they 
gained  with  their  brush  went  to  the  community,  as 
they  were  only  allowed  to  keep  what  money  they 
required  for  the  purchase  of  colors  and  accessories. 

Ghirlandajo,  one  of  the  artists  whose  works  in- 
fluenced Fra  Bartolommeo,  died  in  1498 ;  he  was 
himself  a  painter  of  no  little   talent,  combining  grav- 


448  FLORENCE. 

ity  and  po^Yer  with  much  grace.  He  was  gifted,  more- 
over, with  a  robustness  of  expression  which  is  equally 
noticeable  in  all  his  works,  Avhether  at  Santa  Maria 
Novella — in  the  series  of  compositions  which  cover 
the  walls  of  the  choir  from  roof  to  base — or  in  the 
Sassetti  Chapel  at  Santa  Trinita. 

His  proper  name  was  Domcnico  Corradi,  and  it  is 
said  that  his  father  first  obtained  the  name  of  Ghir- 
landajo  on  account  of  the  garlands  he  manufactured 
for  the  young  girls  of  Florence,  his  trade  being  tliat 
of  a  goldsmith. 

The  frescoes  at  Santa  Maria  Novella  are  remark- 
able for  the  large  number  of  figures  they  contain, 
and  the  portraits  of  contemporary  personages  intro- 
duced into  them.  These  comprise  the  whole  of  the 
Tornabuoni  family,  Marcilio  Ficino,  Cristoforo  Lan- 
dino,  Demetrius  Greco,  Politian,  and  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  Florentine  maidens,  Ginevra  Benci. 
Even  in  his  delineation  of  buildings  he  represented 
the  actual  state  of  the  city,  and  the  architectural  ar- 
rangements of  the  time.  Domenico,  who  Avas  born 
in  1449,  died  about  1498,  his  pupils  comprising,  in 
addition  to  Michael  Angelo ;  Francesco  Granacci, 
Mainardi,  Cieco,  Jacopo  del  Tedesco,  and  Baldini. 

Fraxcesco  Graxacci  was  the  favorite  pupil  of 
Ghirlandajo,  and  a  fellow-student  of  ^lichael  Angelo. 
Lorenzo  de^  Medici,  who  took  a  great  deal  of  interest 
in  Ghirlandajo  and  his  pupils,  employed  Granacci  to 
design  several  of  the  costumes  in  the  Triumph  of 


PAINTING.  449 

Paulus  Emillns,  Avliich  he  had  organized,  and  later  he 
carried  out  the  decoration  of  the  streets  through 
^vliicli  Leo  X.  and  ]iis  cortege  passed,  Avhen  that  })on- 
tiff  entered  Florence  in  state.  All  these  ephemeral 
works  have  passed  away,  all  that  remains  being  the 
poems  which  were  composed  for  the  occasion  by  some 
of  the  greatest  writers  of  the  day.  Granacci  had 
been  so  intimate  with  Michael  Angelo  in  the  studio 
of  their  common  master,  that  the  latter  sent  for  him 
to  assist  in  the  decoration  of  the  Sistine,  but,  con- 
cluding that  his  powers  were  not  equal  to  the  task, 
subsequently  dismissed  him,  a  coolness  arising  be- 
tween them  in  consequence.  Most  of  Granacci's 
paintings  are  in  distemper,  and  there  are  still  extant 
several  standards  and  banners  done  by  him.  He 
possessed  some  of  the  qualities  of  Ghirlandajo,  and  at 
one  period  was  powerfully  influenced  by  Michael  An- 
gelo in  the  first  instance  and  Raphael  later.  He  died 
about  1543,  and  his  remains  were  laid  in  San  Am- 
brogio  at  Florence. 

Leonardo  da  Vixci  was  also  a  Tuscan  by  birth, 
but  though  born  in  the  Val  d'Arno,  he  Avas,  for  rea- 
sons wliich  I  will  explain,  almost  a  stranger  to  Flor- 
ence. His  father,  Pietro  da  Vinci,  was  a  notary,  and 
his  son  was  born  in  1452,  the  father  being  appointed, 
in  1484,  notary  to  the  Signoria.  Leonardo  was  a 
pupil  of  Andrea  Yerrocchio,  and  the  legend  goes  that 
he  showed  himself  so  much  superior  to  the  latter  in 
painting   that  Yerrocchio  resolved  to   abandon   that 

29 


450  FLORENCE. 

branch  of  art,  and  devote  himself  solely  to  sculpture, 
in  which  he  acquired  such  distinction. 

Leonardo's  genius  embraced  every  branch  of  art, 
science,  and  Hterature.  Scidptor,  painter,  architect, 
engineer,  botanist,  anatomist,  mathematician,  and  as- 
tronomer, he  seemed  to  be  at  home  in  every  branch 
of  human  knowledge.  He  was  a  poet,  too,  and  he 
had  few  equals  as  a  musician  when,  taking  up  the 
lyre  to  which  he  had  added  a  chord,  he  accompanied 
his  own  mellow  and  resonant  voice.  For  all  of  these 
gifts  Florence  apparently  did  not  offer  a  sufficiently 
broad  field,  for  when  Ludovico  il  Moro  invited  him 
to  Milan  he  wrote  accepting  the  offer.  The  original 
of  this  letter,  preserved  in  the  Ambrosiana  Library  at 
Milan,  runs  :  '^  I  can  do  all  that  is  humanly  possible, 
whether  in  painting  or  in  sculpture,  as  well  as  any 
living  artist."  He  might  fairly  have  added  that,  be- 
sides being  the  most  skilful  of  his  race  in  all  the  plas- 
tic arts,  he  also  possessed  great  physical  strength  and 
beauty,  for  it  is  said  that  he  was  the  first  swordsman  of 
his  day,  and  that  he  could  twist  the  clapper  of  a  bell, 
or  stop  with  one  turn  of  his  arm  the  most  fiery  cours- 
ers. 

His  arrival  at  Milan  was  the  turning-point  in  his 
destiny  j  he  was  forthwith  intrusted  with  the  found- 
ing of  a  ducal  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  and  made  Di- 
rector of  the  works  of  the  Duomo,  his  patron  also 
ordering  from  him  an  equestrian  statue  of  his  father, 
Francesco  Sforza.     This  colossal  group,  of  which  he 


PAINTING.  451 

made  fourteen  different  sketches,  Avas  never  executed 
in  bronze,  tliougli  Leonardo  completed  two  models  for 
it;  the  first  was  accidentally  broken  and  the  second, 
according  to  Castiglione  the  author  of  the  ''  Car- 
teggio/'  Avas  destroyed  by  the  Gascon  soldiers  of 
Louis  XII.  at  the  capture  of  Milan. 

He  soon  acrpiired  a  high  reputation  as  a  painter  by 
his  execution  of  the  great  fresco  still  in  existence, 
and  famous  throughout  the  world  as  the  "  Cenacolo 
of  Leonardo  da  Vinci."  Unfortunately,  whether  be- 
cause the  vehicle  employed  was  not  what  it  ought  to 
have  been,  or  because  the  wall  had  been  imperfectly 
prepared,  or  else  owing  to  the  dampness  of  the  soil, 
within  a  hundred  years  after  it  had  been  painted  this 
fresco  was  almost  entirely  ruined.*  Still  it  may  be 
gathered  from  the  engravings  of  Morghen  and  the 
copies  of  ]\rarco  d'Oggione  that  it  was  the  work  of  a 
great  genius,  converting  the  refectory  of  the  Do- 
minicans of  the  Madonna  della  Grazia  into  a  true 
sanctuary.  In  1499  he  returned  to  Florence,  where 
he  was  very  favorably  received  by  the  Gonfalonier 
Soderini,  and  after  executing  some  other  works  Avas 
employed,  in  150.3,  to  pahit  a  cartoon  f)r  tlic  grand 
hall  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  the  suliject  to  be  sym- 
bolic of  the  glories  of  Florence.  Michael  Angelo  Avas 
to  decorate  the  opposite  Avail,  and  the  loss  of  these 
tAVO  cartoons  cannot  be  too  deeply  deplored.     Michael 

*  Its  final  ruin  was  accomplished  by  the  "  restorers"  who  re- 
touched it,  one  in  172G,  and  another  in  1770. 


452  FLOEENCE. 

Angelo's  composition  depicted  a  scene  in  the  Pisan 
campaign  ;  while  Leonardo  selected  as  his  subject  the 
defeat  of  the  Milanese  under  Piccinino,  by  the  Flor- 
entines, at  Anghiari,  near  Borgo  San  Sepolcro.  Both 
works  were  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  return  of  the 
Medici,  when  the  soldiers  were  quartered  in  this  hall. 

Arriving  at  Rome,  in  1514,  as  one  of  the  suite  of 
Giuliano  de'  Medici,  Leonardo  executed  a  number  of 
paintings  notably  that  of  two  female  figures  repre- 
senting Vanity  and  Modesty,  formerly  in  the  Sciarra 
collection,  and  the  ''  Christ  Disputing  with  the  Doc- 
tors "  now  to  be  seen  in  the  National  Gallery  in  Lon- 
don. From  Rome  he  went  to  France,  and  remained 
in  the  service  of  Francis  I.  until  his  death.  He  fol- 
lowed that  prince  to  Pavia,  and  back  again  to  France, 
forming  part  of  the  suit  at  Fontainebleau  and  Am- 
boise  ;  dying  at  Cloux,  near  the  latter  town,  on  the 
2d  of  May,  1519,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven.  There 
is  a  popular  engraving  in  France  which  represents 
him  as  drawing  his  last  breath  in  the  arms  of  the 
King,  and  the  Louvre  possesses  several  of  his  works, 
including  the  famous  ''  Mona  Lisa  '^  and  the  Madonna 
in  the  Salon  Carre. 

His  manuscripts  on  science  and  art  form,  Avith 
those  of  Leo  Battista  Alberti,  the  first  technical  trea- 
tises Avritten  by  artists.  Florence  possesses  but  few 
of  his  works*,  of  these  may  be  mentioned  the  Head  of 
Medusa  and  an  Adoration  of  the  Kings,  both  in  the 
Uffizi  GaUery. 


PAINTING.  453 

Lorenzo  di  Ckedi  ^vas  tlie  favorite  pupil  of  Ver- 
roccliio,  and  it  was  to  liim  tliat  tlie  sculptor  of  the 
'^  Colleoni "  assigned  in  liis  will  the  task  of  complet- 
ing that  famous  statue.  I  have  already  explained 
that  the  Senate,  not  feeling  suffigient  confidence  in 
his  ability,  called  in  Alessandro  Leopardi,  who  re- 
ceived in  consequence  the  sobriquet  of  Alessandro 
del  Cavallo.  Lorenzo,  however,  inherited  all  the  art 
works  of  his  late  master. 

The  list  of  his  works  is  a  very  long  one,  for  he 
painted  principally  easel  pictures,  was  extremely  in- 
dustrious, and  lived  to  the  age  of  seventy-eight.  He 
was  a  close  imitator  of  Leonardo,  it  being  sometimes 
difficult  to  distinguish  the  latter's  original  from 
Lorenzo's  copy.  His  pictures  are  remarkable  for 
their  religious  sentiment,  their  elaborate  finish,  and 
the  high  glaze  employed  by  the  artist. 

Andrea  del  Sarto  is  one  of  the  most  touching 
figures  in  the  history  of  Florentine  painting.  Ardent, 
passionate,  and  even  wanting  in  good  faith,  he  finally 
became  the  victim  of  a  misplaced  affection  for  a 
woman  whom  his  brush  has  immortalized.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  tailor  (del  Sarto),  and  his  proper  name 
was  Andrea  Yannucchi.  He  was  born  in  1487.  Ap- 
prenticed at  the  outset  of  his  career  to  Gian  Barile, 
and  later  to  Piero  di  Cosimo,  he  rapidly  acquired  a 
great  reputation  at  Florence,  and  was  invited  by  the 
King  of  France  to  Fontaincbleau.  AVhcn  five-and- 
twenty  years  of  age  he  had  married  a  widow  named 


454  FLORENCE. 

Lucrezia  del  Fede,  of  wliom  lie  has  left  several  por- 
traits. At  her  urgent  request  he  asked  Francis  I. 
to  let  him  forego  his  engagements  and. return  to  Flor- 
ence^ and  the  King  not  only  agreed  to  this  proposal, 
but  intrusted  hin^  with  a  sum  of  money  to  purchase 
works  of  art  for  him  in  Italy.  Andrea,  however, 
spent  the  money  at  Florence,  and  never  sent  the  pict- 
ures, thus  precluding  the  possibility  of  his  return  to 
France.  ]\lany  works  by  him  still  exist,  his  frescoes 
in  the  SS.  Annunziata,  in  the  small  cloister  leading 
to  the  church,  which  have  been  protected  against  the 
ravages  of  time  by  an  enclosure  of  glass,  being  mar- 
vels of  taste  and  execution.  The  ^'  ^ladonna  del 
Sacco,"  over  the  door  of  the  large  cloister  leading 
into  the  church,  is  one  of  the  finest  works  of  art  in 
Italy,  and  is  regarded  as  his  masterpiece.  Among 
his  other  more  celebrated  works  is,  first,  the  ^'  Dis- 
pute about  the  Trinity,"  painted  for  the  Augustinian 
brethren,  and  when  their  chapel  beyond  the  Porta 
San  GaUo  was  razed  for  strategic  reasons  during  the 
siege  of  Florence,  brought  into  Florence.  In  1555  an 
inundation  of  the  Arno  having  damaged  it  very  con- 
siderably in  the  church  of  San  Giovanni  tra'  Fossi, 
which  was  then  their  headquarters,  the  picture  was 
removed  to  the  Pitti  Palace,  and  a  good  copy  by  Ot- 
tavio  Vannini,  a  pupil  of  Possignano,  substituted 
for  it. 

Next,  the  ^'  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  painted  dur- 
ing the  plague  of  1523,  and  known  in  Italy  as  the 


PAINTING.  455 


"  Pietn,  (li  San  Luco,"  Andrea  del  Sarto  1 


laviiiiT,  u]) 


tlie  advice  of  one  Antonio  of  tlie  Brancacci  faniilv, 
taken  refuge  at  Luco,  and  it  was  f(jr  the  sisters  of 
San  Piero  that  he  painted  this  picture,  now  in  the 
Pitti. 

An  "  Assumption  of  the  Madonna,"  painted  for  the 
Cardinal  of  Cortona,  a  '^  Virgin  and  Saints  "  and  the 
"  Descent  from  the  Cross  "  give  a  good  idea  of  the 
grandiose  style  of  this  gifted  artist,  concerning  whom 
Michael  Angelo  wrote  to  Raphael :  "  There  is  a  little 
fellow  at  Florence  who,  if  he  was  employed  as  you  are 
upon  great  works,  would  make  it  very  hot  for  you." 
A  judgment  such  as  this,  expressed  though  it  is  in 
homely  terms,  justifies  any  measure  of  enthusiasm 
for  Del  Sarto,  who  died  in  the  prime  of  life,  on  the 
22d  of  January,  1531,  his  sharp-tongued  wife  sur- 
viving him  forty  years.  So  perfect  was  he  as  a  do- 
signer  and  colorist,  that  he  was  known  as  "  Andrea 
senza  Errori"  (Andrea  the  faultless). 

The  Florentine  School  very  justifiably  regards  him 
as  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments ;  Pontormo,  II  Rosso, 
and  Domenico  Puligo  being  numbered  among  his 
scholars. 

There  is  no  need  to  devote  much  space  to  GiORGiO 
Vasaki,  though  the  list  of  his  works  is  a  lengthy  one, 
and  though  he  had  in  the  course  of  his  career  oppor- 
tunities denied  to  artists  more  gifted  than  himself. 
An  architect,  a  painter,  and  a  writer,  his  biographies 
of  celebrated  artists  are  his  best  title  to  fame,  and 


456  FLORENCE. 

these,  while  full  of  errors  both  as  to  facts  and  dates, 
are  invaluable  as  forming  the  first  work  on  modern 
art  worthy  of  the  name,  and  supplying  information 
about  many  of  the  leading  painters  which  is  unob- 
tainable from  any  other  source. 

Vasari  was  a  favorite  of  Cosimo,  Avho  employed 
him  to  paint  the  soaring  cupola  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Fiore,  and  he  also  altered  the  Uffizi  Palace  and  erected 
the  present  fagade.  His  career  was  a  very  busy  one, 
and  he  Avas  concerned  in  all  the  chief  events  of  his 
day.  Besides  the  many  pictures  which  he  painted 
for  churches,  he  was  fortunate  enough,  as  I  have 
mentioned  in  describing  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  to  be 
employed  to  decorate  the  vast  ceiling  of  the  8ala 
del  Cinquecento.  He  was  a  man  of  talent  and  of 
considerable  acquirements,  but  in  comparison  with 
men  of  genius  consumed  by  the  fire  burning  within 
them,  he  was  cold  and  formal.  There  are  not  many 
easel  paintings  by  him,  most  of  his  works  being  large 
decorative  compositions  designed  for  the  walls  of 
palaces  and  convents,  Avhich,  if  they  do  not  enthral, 
at  least  please  the  eye. 

PONTORMO,  a  pupil  of  Del  Sarto,  whose  proper 
name  was  Jacopo  Carucci,  was  born  in  1494.  Com- 
ing to  years  of  manhood  at  a  time  when  Michael 
Angelo's  fame  resounded  throughout  Italy,  he  had 
been  deeply  impressed  by  the  grandeur  of  his  genius. 
He  himself  excelled  as  a  portrait  painter,  and  there 
are  numerous  admirable  examples  of  his  work  in  this 


PAINTING.  457 

branch  of  art  to  be  seen  in  Berlin  and  Florence. 
He  won  the  favor  of  the  Medici^  who  employed  him 
to  decorate  the  walls  of  their  villas  at  Poggio  a 
Cajano  and  Careggi  with  frescoes.  It  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  Pontormo,  who  shows  the  influence  of 
Michael  Angelo  in  all  his  fresco  paintings,  recovers 
his  originality  Avhen  left  face  to  face  with  nature. 
His  portraits  are  of  a  very  high  order,  and  he  was 
employed  to  paint  many  of  the  Medici  family,  among 
others  Cosimo  the  Elder,  a  Avork  which  may  be  seen 
in  a  cell  at  San  Marco.  It  is  true  that  Cosimo  the 
Elder  died  long  before  Pontormo's  time ;  but  this 
does  not  necessarily  discredit  the  authenticity  of  the 
portrait,  as  he  would  have  had  abundant  materials 
for  a  good  likeness.  Pontormo  died  in  1557. 
Beoxzixo,  a  contemporary  and  imitator  of  Pontormo, 
was  born  in  1502,  at  MonticelK,  near  Florence,  his 
first  master  being  Raffaellino  del  Gcirbo.  His  best 
works  are  to  be  seen  in  a  small  chapel  in  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio,  where  he  executed  a  series  of  frescoes  illus- 
trating scenes  from  the  Old  Testament.  Most  of  his 
pictures  are  portraits  of  the  Medici  and  others,  more 
than  twenty  of  these  being  found  in  the  Pitti  and 
Uffizi  Galleries  alone. 

There  are  probably  few  collections  in  Europe  which 
have  not  a  picture  of  one  of  the  Medici  by  him. 
His  intimate  friend,  Vasari,  gives  him,  as  he  de- 
serves, a  prominent  place  in  his  "  Lives,"  for  he  was 
a  poet  as  well,  and  a  member  of  the  Academy  of 


458  FLORENCE. 

Florence^  lils  verses  having  been  puLlislied  at  Naples 
in  1723.  There  is  mucli  poetic  feeling  in  one  of  his 
most  brilliant  pictures,  now  in  the  National  Gallery 
of  England,  "Venus,  Cupid,  Folly,  and  Time."  His 
death  occurred  in  1572. 

Christofano  Allori  owes  his  celebrity  to  his  pict- 
ure of  "  Judith,"  which  is,  with  the  Madonnas  of 
Raphael  and  the  famous  "  Cenci,"  more  frequently 
copied  than  any  work  in  Italy. 

Il  Rosso,  or  Giovanni  Battista  Fiorentino,  went  to 
France  with  Primaticcio,  and  was,  with  Niccolo  delP 
Abbate,  one  of  the  Fontainebleau  School ;  his  alle- 
gorical frescoes  in  that  palace,  set  off  by  the  orna- 
mental compositions  in  stucco  of  Dell'  Abbate,  being 
his  best  title  to  fame. 

Andrea  del  Mixga,  who  is  represented  in  Santa 
Croce  by  the  "  Orazione  dell'  Orto,"  has  a  good  deal 
of  Bronzino's  style  in  the  outline  of  his  figures,  but  it 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  one  is  reaching  the  end  of  a 
school.  With  regard  to  Cristoforo  dell'  Altissimo, 
his  name  is  not  classed  among  the  masters,  though 
he  is  represented  both  in  the  Uffizi  and  the  Pitti  Pal- 
ace. He  was  a  pupil  of  Pontormo,  as  may  be  guessed 
at  once  by  his  portrait  of  Clarissa  Altoviti,  which 
might  have  been  painted  by  his  master  or  by  Bron- 
zino.  This  lady  was  the  sister  of  Niccolo  Ridolfi, 
Archbishop  of  Florence  and  of  Sabine  and  nephew 
of  Leo  X.  Cristoforo  was  also  employed  by  Cosimo 
I.  to  copy,  at  the  residence  of  Bishojj  Paolo  Giovio  at 


PAINTING.  459 

Como,  tlie    two    liundrod  and    twonty-fonr   ])()rtraits 
which  formed  tlio  conoction  of  that  learned  prelate. 

Fraxcesco  Hossi,  known  in  art  by  the  name  of  his 
patron,  Cardinal  Salviati,  was  born  at  Florence  in 
1510,  and  studied  under  Andrea  del  Sarto.  He  was 
an  imitator  of  Michael  Angelo  and  a  friend  of  Vasari, 
one  of  his  best-known  works  being  a  portrait  of 
Aretino,  which  he  painted  at  Venice,  and  sent  as  a 
present  to  Francis  I.  of  France.  He  died  in  1563, 
having  spent  a  short  time  in  France  under  Henri  XL, 
and  then  gone  to  Rome,  where  he  executed  several 
important  works  at  Santa  Maria  del  Popolo. 

The  last  names  of  the  Florentine  School  are  Cigoli, 
Poccetti,  Jacopo  Empoli,  and  Carlo  Dolci,  the  last 
named  of  whom,  born  in  1616,  died  at  the  close  of 
the  century,  his  masterpiece  being  a  Pieta,  Avhich  is 
in  the  museum  at  ^Madrid,  and  Avhich  is  not  lacking 
either  in  force  or  grace  of  expression.  Poccctti's 
frescoes  are  very  numerous  in  Florence.  They  come 
nearer  to  the  superficial  but  graceful  French  School 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  though  it  may  be  said  that 
Florence  had  no  intermediate  school  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  like  Venice,  which  could  boast  of  a 
Guardi,  a  Tiepolo,  a  Ricci,  and  a  Longhi,  or,  like 
Naples,  with  its  grand  decorative  painters. 

Here  my  task  must  end,  for  though  much  might  be 
written  about  the  history  of  Florentine  painting  and 
sculpture,  as  well  as  about  the  architecture,  the  his- 
tory, and  the  intellectual  development  of  the  Tuscan 


460  FLORENCE. 

people,  the  object  of  this  book  is  to  give  a  general 
idea  of  the  part  ^Yhich  Florence  has  played  in  the  in- 
tellectual history  of  modern  times. 

The  novel  feature  in  this  book  is  the  chapter  on 
^^Illustrious  Florentines,"  in  which  I  have  given  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  life  and  idiosyncrasies  of  those 
who  achieved  distinction  in  Florence  in  philosophy, 
politics,  literature,  and  science,  giving  special  promi- 
nence to  those  gifted  humanists  who  shed  such  lustre 
upon  the  Tuscan  name  in  the  fifteenth' century. 

There  must  always  be  faults  in  a  book  of  this  kind, 
and  they  are  apparent  enough  to  the  author,  but  upon 
the  whole  I  hope  that  I  may  have  succeeded  in  con- 
veying an  adequate  idea  of  the  superiority  of  Flor- 
ence over  the  other  cities  of  Italy,  and  of  imparting 
to  my  readers  something  of  the  enthusiasm,  the  re- 
spectful admiration,  and  the  profound  tenderness 
which  I  feel  for  Italy,  ^'  the  divine  mother  of  us  all," 
and  for  that  City  of  Flowers  towards  which  all  faces 
turn  when  they  want  to  study  the  origin  of  the  Re- 
naissance of  literature  and  art  in  the  modern  world. 


INDEX. 


Abbatc,  Niccolo  dell',  458. 
Academy,  Cimenlo,  109. 

of  Florence,  87. 

of  La  Crusca,  87. 

Platonian,  21l>. 
Accaiuoli,  conspiracy  of,  45. 
Acciaiuoli,  Niccolo,  3ri5. 

biography  of,  163-164. 
Accurst,  the  juriscnsult,  166. 
Acquasparta,  Cardinal,  sent  to  Flor- 
ence as  Papal  Legate,  23. 

Cardinal  Matteo  d'  and  S.  Croce, 
313. 
.^neas  Sylvius  see  Pope  Pius  II. 
African  Corsairs,  102. 
Agnolo,  Baccio  d',  343. 
Agnoli,  Convent  of  the,  36. 
Agriculture  of  the  Medici,  57,  90. 
Alamanni,  tomb  of,  322. 
Albany,  tomb  of  Countess  of,  321. 
Alberghettino,  the,  32. 
Albert!  familv.  the,  204. 

Leo  Hattista,  140,  438. 

biography  of,  201-211. 

dome  of  Cathedral.  305. 

S.  JMaria  Novella,  341. 

tomb  of,  318. 

tomb  of  Senator  G.  V.,  318. 
Albizzi,  familv,  2.'^. 

hatred  of  the  Albert!,  205,  210. 

Renaldo  degli,  32. 
Aldrovandri.  Ulysses,  94. 
Alessandri,  Cornelia  degli,  88. 
Alexander  VI.,  see  Pope. 

VII..  .see  Pope. 
Alfieri,  tomb  ot  Victor,  314. 
Alighieri,  see  Dante. 

father  of  Dante,  142-143. 
Almini,  Sforza.  92. 
Alliance,  the  Holy,  252. 
Alliotli,  tomb  of  Bishop,  343. 
AUori,  Alessandro,  344. 

Cristoforo,  458. 
Alms  Houses,  118. 
Altar,  Silver,  327,  354. 
Altissimo,  Cristoforo  dell',  458. 
Altopascio,  battle  of.  24. 
Altoviti,  portrait  of  Clarissa,  458. 
Amadei,  family,  16. 
Amalfi,  tomb  of  Duchess  of,  382. 
Ammanati,     Bartolommeo,    biogra- 
phy,   408-410. 

Pitti  Palace,  200. 

Ponte  S.  Trinita,  90. 

Signoria  Fountain,  295. 

Julia,  257. 


Ancycle,  the,  275. 

Andrea  (S.),  church  of,  at  Mantua, 
209. 

(S.),  tomb  of,  283. 
Angelico,  Fra,    bi(graphv,  414-445. 

S.  Marco,  229. 
Angelo   Buonarotti,  Michael,  biog- 
raphy,  390-399. 

character  of,  Avork,  9. 

David,  291,  296,  339. 

dome   of    Florence    Cathedral, 
197,  305. 

Donatello's  S.  Mark,  334. 

fortifies  Florence,  78,  288. 

Grinacci,  449. 

S.  Maria  Novella,  343. 

nose  broken,  389. 

Riccardi  Palate.  368. 

"  the  man  with  four  souls,"  10. 

tomb,  314. 

tombs  of  the  Medici,  75,  77. 

bridge  of  S  ,  209. 
Anjou,  Charles  of.  421. 

arms  adopted  by  Florence,  14. 

Robert  of.  157. 

his  arms  adopted  by  Florence, 

Annunziata,  church   and  Piazza  of 
theSS.,  345-347. 

decorations  of  church  of  the  SS., 
208. 
Ammanati,  Ponte  S.  Trinita,  312. 
Anziani,  the,  18,  21,  324. 
Apatisti,  literary  society,  115. 
Apennines,  giant  of  the',  94. 
Arab  influence  on  Italian  art,  135, 

136. 
Arbia,  the  river,  19. 
.\rch,  the  Etruscan,  273. 
Archa'ology,  Biondo  da  Forli,  207. 
Arch ilecture,  285-347. 

IClruscan,  273. 
Archivio  Generale,  90. 

di  Stato,  29. 
Aretino,  see  Bruni,  Leonardo. 

Niccolo,  Or  S.  Michele,  333,  and 
note. 
Aretines  at  Campaldino,  21. 
Arezzo,  church  of  S.  Domenico,  349. 
Argyropulus,  45. 
Amis  of  Florence,  12-13-14. 
Arnoldi,  Alberto,  302. 
Arrabiati,  the,  223. 
Art,  (Christian,  280-284. 
Art,  influence  of  Savonarola  on,  230, 
232. 

461 


462 


INDEX. 


Art,  Roman,  275. 

Assisi,  church  of  S.  Francis  d',  286. 

frescoes  at,  42 1-422-4 -'3. 
Athens,  Duke  of,  at  S.  Croce,  321 
322. 

Capitano  del  Popolo.  2t. 

ceremony  on  expulsion  of,  333. 

expulsion  of,  24. 

portrait  of.  32G,  428. 

reign  of,  165. 
Austria.  Joanna  of,  94,  2P7. 

Maria  Maddalena,  ]05. 

silver  ^vedding  of  Emperor  of, 
96. 
Azeglio  (C)  on  the  Palazzo  Yecchio, 
8. 

Badia,  Monastery  of  the,  325. 
Baldovinelti,  Alesso,    portraits   by, 

437. 
Balia,  tlie,  74,  81. 

Banco,    Nanni  di,  statues  at  Or  S. 
Michele.  3:  4,  335. 

and  Donatello,  361. 
Bandinelli,  Baccio.  291). 

biography  of.  4ii6-408. 

colossal  group  by,  2".  6. 
Baptistery,  8.  Giovanni,  286,  307-310. 

gates.  194,  352. 

meeting-place  of  the  Guelphs, 
302. 

mosaics,  13.5. 

tomb  of  John  XXIII.,  30,  183. 

at  Pistoia.  353. 
Barbarossa.  15. 
Barber's  Salon,  216. 
Barcelona,  the  Peace  of,  255. 
Bardi,  dau.  of  Count,  31,  38. 

Niccolo  di  Betto,  360. 
Bargello,  the,  286,  324-326. 

effigies  of  conspirators,  70. 

enlarged,  429. 
Barlaam,  Bernardo.  132. 
Bartoliui,  tomb  of  Leo  Battista  Al- 

berti,  318. 
Bartolo,  Giov.  di,  306. 
Bartolomeo  and  Romolo,  Abbey  of 

S.,  35. 
Bartolommeo,    Fra,    biography   of, 
446-417. 

effect  of  Savonarola's  death  on, 
231. 
Battiferri,  Laura.  410. 
Battle  of  Altopascio,  21. 

(ampakiino,  21. 

Montaperti,  19. 

Montecatini,  24. 

Montemurlo,  380. 

Tagliacozzo,  351. 

of  Vadimo,  268. 
Bavaria:  dau.  of  Duke  of,  113. 
Beata,  Villana,  tomb  of  the,  342. 
Beatrice,  first  meeting  with  Dante, 
142. 

news  of  death  of,  144. 


Beatrice,  mother  of  Countess  Ma- 
tilda, her  tomb,  283. 
of  Lorraine,  14. 
Bell,  in  the  tower  of  the  Lion,  IS. 
la  Martinella,  81. 
la  Vacca,  295. 
Bellarmino,  Galileo  and  Cardinal, 

259. 
Bells  in  the  Campanile,  305. 
Bembo,  clears  Politian's  character, 
23S. 
the  Dialogues  of  Cardinal,  75. 
Benavides,  palace    and     tomb   of 

Marco  di  Montova,  409. 
Benivieni,  biographies  of  the,  234- 
235. 
Jerome,  portrait  of,  233. 
Bernardo,  chapel   in  Palazzo  Vec- 
chio  of  S.,300. 
da  Siena,  S.,  322. 
Bessarion,  consecration  of  S.   Croce 

by  Cardinal,  313. 
Bigallo,  Loggia  del,  301-302. 
Biaiichi  and  Neri,  22. 
Bibbiena,  Cardinal  da,  41S. 
Black  Band,  Joim  of  the,  83-85. 
Boboli  Gardens,  90,  94. 
Boccaccio,  biography  of,  164-172. 
friendship  with"  Petrarch,   157, 

160,  165. 
inspired  by  the  plague,  25. 
studies  in  Greek,  43,  127. 
Bocchi,  "Le  Bellezze  della  citta  di 

Firenze,"  by  Francesco,  324. 
Bode,  list  of  Donatello's  works  com- 
piled by  Herr,  362, 
Bologna,  tomb  of  Vera,  356. 

Sarcophagus   of    S.    Domenico, 
350. 
Bologna,    Giovanni   da,   biography 
of,  ^10-413, 
Boboli  Gardens,  94. 
Loggia  del  Lanzi,  340. 
Medici  statues,  93,  102,  315. 
obelisks,  342. 
Or  S.  Michele,  335. 
Porial  of  S.  Potronius,  357. 
Bolide,  the  Alberti,  206. 
Bonafeste,   collection   of     Princess 

Matilda,  93. 
Bonaparte,  tomb  of  Princess  Char- 
lotte, 321. 
Boiiaveniuri,  Pietro  de  Zenobio,  95. 
Boni,  Chev.  Ornofrio,  315. 
Boniface  VIIL,  see  Pope. 
Borgia.  Ctesar  and  Machiaveli,  246. 
Lucretia,  9H. 
see  Pope  Alex.  VI. 
Bosco  a  Prati,  Convent  of,  35. 
Botticelli  Sandro,  biography  of,  441- 

444. 
Botticelli,  Sandro,  influence  of  Sav- 
onarola on,  231. 
Pazzi  conspirators,  70. 
portrait  of  Simouetta,  215. 


INDEX. 


463 


Botany,  study  of  under  Cosimo  I.,  90. 
Buurbou,  sack  of  Rome  by  the  Con- 
stable de,  78,  255,  402. 
Bracciolini,  Giacomo,  son  of  Poggio, 

186. 
Brave,  tomb  of  Cardinal  de,  293. 
Bridge,  see  Ponte. 
Brienne,  itaulthier  de,  see   Athens, 

Duke  of. 
Bi-ochi,  Giuseppi.  Lives  of  Floren- 
tine Haints  by,  112. 
Bronzino,  biography  of,  4.57-458. 
paintings  in  Paiazzo  Vecchiobv, 

298,  8(K). 
portrait  of  Cosimo  I.,  93. 
Brunelleschi,  Filippo  di  Ser,  biog- 
raphy of,  190-2(tl. 
dome  of  Duomo,  305,  358. 
Foundling  Hospital,  34r,. 
letter  from  Albert!  to,  205. 
8.  Lorenzo,  28. 
Pazzi  chapel,  322. 
Bruni,  Leonardo  (.Aretino),  133. 
biography  of,  182-185. 
Fiiundling  Hospital,  199,  316. 
subjects   for    Baptistery    Gates, 

358. 
tomb  of,  316-317. 
Bueri,  I'iccarda,  28. 
Buflhlmaco,  Buonamico,  420. 

biograpliy  of,  430-431. 
Buggiano,  bust  of  Brunelleschi  by, 

2<J0. 
Buonaccorsi,  Elena,  218. 
Buonaccorso,  Cione  di  Ser,  357. 
Buondelmonte  family,  the,  16. 
Buonsollazzo,  Monastery  of,  112. 
Burchiello,    Domeuico,    biography 

of,  216-217. 
Burokhardt,  work  on   the  Renais- 
sance by,  122. 
Burial  in  churches,  decree  concern- 
ing, 167. 
Burlamachi,  burning  of  the  "  Vani- 
ties," 225. 
death  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  58- 
59,  and  note  on  p.  60. 
Buschetto,  architect  of  Pisa  Cathe- 
dral, 2.%. 
Byzantine,  Art  in  the  West,  281. 

artists  in  Italy.  419. 
Byzantium,  capital  transferred  from 
Bome  to,  279. 

Cabala,  library  of  Pico  delta  Miran- 

dola,  242. 
Cacciaguida,  grandfather  of  Dante, 
•    141. 

Cafaggiuolo,  36. 

Calandra,  lirst  Italian  comedy,  418. 
Calimala.  Guild  of  the,  21,  309. 
Camaldoli,  Ambrose,  prefiice  to  the 

life  of;  by  Abb6  Mehus,  240. 
Camaldoli,  gatherings  in  the  woods 

of,  209. 


'  Camalduli,  Fathers,  convent  of  the, 

;        36. 

I  Cambio,  Amolfo  di.  biography  of, 
292-294. 
Baptistery,  307. 
Bargello,  324. 
S.  Croce,  312,  321. 
OrS.  Michele,  328. 
Campaldino,  battle  of,  21,  23, 143. 
Campanile,  the,  304-305,  425. 

bas-reliefs,  3.53. 
Can  Grande  della  Scala,  147. 
Cancellieri,  Pistoia,  familv  of  the, 

21. 
Canova,  tomb  of  Alfieri  by,  314. 
Canti  Carnavaleschi,  46,51. 
Cdpello  Bianca,  94-98. 

pamphlet  on  marriage  fC-tes  of, 
96. 
Capilano  del  Popolo,  18.  324. 
Capitani  di  Parte  Guelfa,  25,  311. 
I  Caporali  di  Popolo,  IS. 
Capponi,  Niccolo,  plan  for  protect- 
ing Florence,  297. 
Piero,  and  Charles  VIII.,  72,  222. 
Capraia,  fortress  of,  17. 
Caroccio,  the.  13. 
Carraja.  see  Ponte. 
Car'eggio,  the,  54. 
Cartoons,  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and 

Michaul  Angelo,  451. 
Caskets,  marriage,  in  So.  Kensing- 
ton Museum,  47. 
Cassino,  monks  of  Monte,  126. 
Castagno,  Andrea  del,  biographv  of, 
439-440. 
paintings  at  the  Bargello,  70. 
Castellani,  tomb  of  the.  321. 
Castruecio  Castracane,  24. 
Catasta,  method  of  taxation,  27. 
Cathedral,  see  Duomo. 
Catiline,  flies  to  Fiesole.ll  note. 
Catrick,  tomb  of  John,  321. 
Cavalcanti,  tomb  of  Aldubrandini, 

343. 
Cellini.   Benvenuto,  biographv  of, 
401-406. 
bust  of  Cosimo  I.,  89. 
competes  for  Signoria  fountain, 

89. 
Perseus  by,  340-341. 
his  quarrels  wUh  Bandinelli,  407. 
Cellini,  Giovanni,  401. 
('erchi,  Veri  de.  at  Campaldino,  143. 
Ceres,  Temple  of,  273. 
Cestus  in  Kircherian  Museum,  the, 

271. 
Certaldo,  tomb  of  Boccaccio  at,  107. 
Certosa,  3-55. 

Charlemagne,  sarcophagus  of,  283. 
Charles  of  Anjou,  device  adopted,  14. 
execution  of  Conradin,  351. 
visits  Cimabue's  Madonna,  421. 
Charles  I.,  389. 
I  Charles  V.,  and  the  Campanile,  305. 


464 


INDEX. 


Charles  V..  campaign  against  Afri- 
can Corsairs,  102. 
claims  Dnchy  of  Milan,  78. 
confers  Order  of  Golden  Fleece, 

91. 
interviiRW  with  the  Pope,  79. 
Charles  VIII.,  enters  Italy,  71. 
enters  Florence,  72. 
and  Pico  della  Mirandola,  244. 
and  Savonarola.  221. 
Chimeera  of  the  Uffizi,  269. 
Choir  of  Duomo  as  it  was  formerly, 

807. 
Christian  art,  280-284. 
Christianity  and  Greek  art  and  liter- 
ature, 129,  ISO. 
Chrysoloras,  Emannel,  lo3,  319. 
Churches,  separation  of  Eastern  and 

Western,  130. 
Cigoli,  459. 

Cimabue.  Giovanni.  135. 
biography  of,  420-422. 
his  Madonna,  343. 
Cimento  Academy,  the,  109. 
Cioli,  Valerio,  314". 
Ciompi  Revolution,  the.  25. 
Clone,  Andrea,  see  Oicagna. 
Bernardi,  327. 
INIatleo,  32fi,  354. 
Civil  strife,  first  appearance  in  Flor- 
ence of,  15. 
Clement,  see  Pope. 
(Hizia,  comedy  by  Machiavelli,  250. 
Cloister,  of  S.  Croce,  322. 
of  S.  M.  Novella.  314. 
Coats  of  Arms,   union  of  Fiesoline 
and  Florentine,  12. 
,  Cocchi,  tomb  of  Antonio,  318. 
Collections  of  the  Medici  scattered, 

72. 
Colleges  founded  by  Ferdinand  I., 

99. 100. 
CoUeoni,   statue    of  Bartolommeo, 

298,  372-373. 
Colli,  Vialedei,  296. 
Colonna,  Bishop,  influence    on  Pe- 
trarch, 156. 
murder  of,  158. 
Vittoria,  .397-398. 
Commentators,  Dante,  150. 
Comune,  Palazzo  del,  see  Bargello. 
Communes,    establishment   of   the, 

17. 
Conradin.  execution  of,  351. 
Conspiracy,  against  the  Medici,  45. 
of  April  1526,  251. 
Pazzi,  57,  62-70,  306. 
Constance,  see  Council. 
Constantine  Copronymos,  and  image 

worship,  281. 
Constantinople,  tomb  of  Patriarch 

of,  .343. 
Consuls,  2,3. 
Contado,  the,  15. 
Convent  of  S.  Croce,  321-322. 


Convent  of  S.  Marco,  221,  226,  220, 

233,  444. 
Convito,  by  Dante,  115. 
Corniole,  cameo  of  Savonarola,  by, 

232. 
Cortona,  works  of  N.  Pisano  at,  349. 
Corvin  Matthias,  54. 
Cosmati,  the,  293. 
Cossa,  Baldassare,  see   Pope    John 

xxrii. 

Council  of  Carthage,  130. 
of  Constance,  29. 

deposes  John  XXIII.,  183. 
Poggio  at,  185. 
established     by     Lorenzo     de' 

Medici.  57. 
of  Florence,  43, 134. 

formed  bv  Savonarola,  73. 
of  Priors,  the*.  31. 
of  twelve  citizens,  81. 
of  Vienna,  132. 
Credi,  Lorenzo  di.  453. 

influence  of  Savonarola  on,  ^31. 
named  in  Verrochio's  will,  373. 
Croce,  S.,  286,312-322. 

chapel  of  the  Noviziato,  36. 
of  the  Pazzi,  198. 
Cronaca,  il,  see  Pollaiuolo,  Simone. 
Cross,   Triumph  of  the,  by  Savon- 
arola, 225. 
Crucifix  from  S.  Miniato,  the  mirac- 
ulous, 289. 
Crusca,  Academy  of  La,  87. 
Cupid  of  Michael  Angelo,  the,  392. 

Dami.  valet  of  John  Gaston,  117. 
Dandolo,    Boccaccio's    birth-place, 
164. 

clears  Politian's character,  238. 

Florence  down  to  the  Fall  of  the 
Republic  by,  62. 

summary  of  II  Governo    della 
Famiglia,  182. 
Dante,  10. 

anecdote  of  an  admirer  of,  43. 

biography  of,  141-150. 

Boccaccio's  admiration  for,  165. 

commentaries  on  170. 

Botticelli's  familiarity  with,  443. 

at  Camf)aldino,21. 

connection  with  Sacchctti  fam- 
ily, 1"6. 

influence  upon  Giotto,  424. 

lines  on   the  battle  of   Monta- 
perti.  19. 

made  a  Prior,  23. 

monument  to.  314. 

portraits  of,  140,  306,  326. 

and  Virgil,  127. 
Danti.  Vincenzio,  308. 

biography  of,  414-415. 
David,  by  Michael  Angelo,  the,  296, 
339,  392. 

bronze  copy  of,  291. 
Dazzi,  Andrea.*49. 


INDEX. 


465 


Decameron,  the,  25, 172. 
Dialogues,  Galileo's,  'i(51. 

for  the  theatre,  240. 
Diary  of  Ghiberti.  ;J5S. 
Didot,  M.  Firmin,  jiamphlet  on  mar- 
riage ft'tes  of  Bianca  ('apello,%. 
Dii'pntationes  CamalduUn.icf,  4G. 
Dolci,  Carlo,  459. 

Dolphin,  boy  and,  by  Verrocchio,29T. 
Domenioo,  Area  di  8..  H50. 
Donatelio,  Annunciation  by,  315. 
biography  of,  ?)6(J-3(55. 
Marzocco  by,  296. 
Nanni  di  Banco  and.  ""6. 
Brunelleschi  and,  lii3. 
sculptors  of  the  fifteenth  cent. 

and,  9. 
statue,  of,  S.  George,  334. 
Judith.  3:^9. 
the  Magdalen,  310. 
S.  Mark,  334. 
S.  Peter,  335. 
and  stained  glass  atS.  Croce,313. 
tomb  of  John  XXIII.,  30,  1S3. 
works  in  Pazzi  chapel  by,  324. 
"II  Zuccone,"  305. 
Donati,  Corso,  22. 

Gemma,  wife  of  Dante,  144. 
Drevfus   Collection,  portrait  of  Al- 

berti  in,  211. 
Duomn,  Florentine,  303-307. 
dome,  196-19cS. 
statues  by  A.  Pisano,  353. 
Duomo  of,  Milan.  286. 
of  Pisa.  2<'-6. 

of   Prato,  the  bas-relief  of  the 
pulpit.  362. 

Edward  IV.,  and  the  Medici.  38. 
Emblem  of  Florence,   lily  the,  12, 

and  note. 
Emperor    and    Pope,   struggle   be- 
tween the.  14. 
Empoli,   conference  of  Ghibellines 

at,  19. 
Empoli,  Jacopo,  459. 
Engraving  under  Francesco  I.,  93. 
Equestrian  statues,  364,  and  note. 
Etruscan,  architecture,  273. 

art,  266-279. 

chimera  in  the  I'ffinzi.  110. 

remains,  at  Fiesole,  267,  268. 

at  Perugia,  268. 
Etruscans,  become  subject  to  Rome, 
2GS. 

origin  of  the,  266. 
Eugenius.  see  Pope. 
Exarchate    of   Ravenna,   influence 
on  Tuscan V,  1^4. 

the  Alberti,  203-204. 
Exile,  of  Cosimo  the  Elder,  33-31. 

of  Dante,  145. 
Exiles,  plots  of  the,  86. 

Fagade,  ol  S.  Croce,  313,  and  note. 


Far-ade  of  the  Duomo,  .307. 

of  S.  Maria  Novella,  208,  341. 
Facades    of    Florentine    buildings, 
289 
!  Fflcardino,  the  Emir,  and  the  Holy 
Sepulchre.  101. 
Fanali  or  Strozzi  Palace,  366-.367. 
Fanftini.   Pietro.  gives  facts  about 

Macchiavelli,  245. 
Fede,    1  ucrezia  del,  wife  of  A.  del 

Sarto.  4."3. 
Federighi  Benozzo,  tomb  of.  374. 
Ferucci,  Andrea  di  Piero,  387. 

Francesco  (Cecca  del  Tadda),88, 
387. 
Feruccio,  loss  of,  80. 
Festivals,    at    marriage    of    Bianca 
Capello,  96. 
of  Ferdinand  de'  Medici,  264. 
of  Gonzaga,  265. 

of  Henry    IV,    and    Maria   de' 
Medici,  264. 
Festivals  under  Cosimo  I.,  143. 
Ficino.  Marcilio,  42.  45. 
biography  of,  211-215. 
letter  from  Cosimo  the  Elder  to, 

40. 
letter  from  Politian  to.  56. 
stands  sponsor  for  Guicciardini, 
252. 
Fiesole,  Catiline  takes  refuge  in,  11 
note. 
Etruscan  walls  at.  267,  268. 
Florence  formed  by  emigrations 

from,  11. 
forms  alliance  with  Florence,  12. 
Medici  villa  at,  36. 
Town  Hall,. 325. 
Fiesole.  biogiaphy  of  Mino  da,  383- 
3.S.5. 
his  tomb  of  Bishop  Palutati,175. 
his  works  in  the  Badia.  355. 
Filelfo.   Francesco,   enmity  of  Mar- 
suppini  towards,  U8. 
Poggios  attack  upon,  187. 
Fiorovarti.  Nero  di,  325  note. 
F'ire,  Savon  arola's  trial  by,  226. 
Firenze,  Le   Bellezze  della  citti  di, 

by  T.  Bocchi,  324. 
Flood,  see  Inundation. 
Floren,  first  striking  of  the  gold,  19. 
Florence,  Academy  of,  established, 
87. 
beautified  by  Cosimo  I.,  90. 
besieged  bv  Imperial  Army,  78. 
Council  of,  43.  134. 
fortified  by  Michael  Angelo.  78. 
in  the   year    1490.  described  by 

Guicciardini.  54. 
Jesus  Christ  elected  King  of, 297. 
offers  to  admit  Dante,  146. 
period   of   development   of  art 

and  literature.  34. 
sketch  of  the  history  of,  11-26. 
treaty  with  Gonzaga,  80. 


30 


466 


INDEX. 


Florence,  imder  John  Gaston,  118. 
down  to  the  fiUl  of  the  Republic, 

essays  by  Dandolo,  62. 
the     history  of,    by    Leonardo 

Bruni,  183,  316. 
b-v  Macchiavelli,  250. 
by  Poggio,  186. 
by  Giovanni  Villani,  150. 
Florentine    merchants,    reputation 

of,  20. 
Font  in  the  Baptistery,  310. 
Fonte  Gaza,  La,  356. 
Foraboschi  Tower,  the,  294. 
Forli,  Biondo  da,  207. 

seven  inhabitants  of,  beheaded, 
ISO. 
Fortezza  da  Basso,  380. 
Fortifications  of  Florence  inspected 
by  Macchiavelli,  250. 
strengthened    by    Michael   An- 
gelo.  78. 
Fortress  of  San  Martino,  87. 

of  Terre  del  Sole,  b7. 
Foundling  Hospital,  the,  199,   208, 

346. 
Fountain,  by  Ammanati,  295,  409. 
at  Perug"ia,  29a,  351. 
by  Tadda,2'J7. 
Fountains  on  hquare  of  the  SS.  An- 

nunziata,  345,  416. 
"  Fourteen,"  the,  21. 
Francesca,  Piero  della,  436. 
Francesco,  Bartolomeo  di,  318. 
Francis  I.  and    Andrea   del   Sarto, 
453—454 
and  Benvenuto  Cellini,  403-404- 

4(15. 
and  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  452. 
d  Assisi,  church  of  S..  286. 
Franciscans,    church   of     the    Re- 
formed. 291. 
Monastery  founded  by  Spanish, 
112. 
Frederick  II  ,  death  of,  CO. 

his  influence  in  Italy,  136-137. 
struggle  with  the  Pope,  17. 
treachery  of,  17. 

III.  passes  through  Florence,  188. 
French  in  Italy,  fall  of  the,  253. 
Fresco  painting  at  Florence,  417. 
Frescoba'di,    Battista,    attempt    on 
life  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  57. 
Messer    Lamberto  builds  Ponte 
S.  Trinita,  312. 
Fuorusciti,  the,  380. 

Gaddi,  Agnolo,  Baptistery  lantern, 
307. 
and  Giovanni.  429-430. 
Gaddo,  420,426. 
Taddeo,  biography  of,  425-427. 
Campanile,  304. 

frescoes  in  S.  Maria  Novella,  344. 
Or  S.  Michele,  3J9. 
Poute  Vecchio,  311. 


Galilei,  Alex.,  tomb  of,  321. 

Vincenzio,  257. 
Galileo.  10. 

befriended  by  Cosimo  II.,  104. 
by  Ferdinand  II.,  107. 
biography  of,  257-264. 
burial-place  of,  324,  and  note, 
influence  in  Florence,  108. 
tomb,  320. 

trial  for  heresy,  107-108. 
Galla  Placidia,  mosaics  on  tomb  of, 

135. 
Galleries,  the  Uffizi,  connected  with 
the  Pitti,  89. 
founded  by  Francesco  I.,  93. 
Gallo,  Antonio  da  San.  church  of 
SS   Annunziata,  345. 
Giuliano  da  San,  388 
Francesco  da  San,  336,  388-389. 
Gambarelli,  Antonio.  290,  376-378. 
Bernardo.  376-378. 
Domenico  del  Borro.376. 
Gardens,  Giovanni  da  Bologna  deco- 
rates the  Boboli,  94. 
Gates,  the  Baptistery,  307-308. 
Ghiberti,  358-360. 
A.  Pisano.  3-52. 
J.  della  Quercia,  356. 
Gattamelata,    equestrian   statue  of, 

364. 
Gaulthier  de  Brienne,  see  Athens, 

Duke  of. 
Genealogies  of  Italian  families,  by 

Litta,  97. 
Gentucca  di  Dante,  la,  146. 
George,  Donatello's  statue  of  S.,  334- 

3;>)  and  note. 
Gerolamo,  Monastery  of  S.,  3-^. 
Ghibelline  T'^rty,  conference  at  Em- 
poli.l9. 
defeated  at  Campaldino,  21. 
effect  of  deatli  of  Henry  VII.  on, 

23. 
name   ceases  to  be  prominent, 

20. 
first  heard  of  in  Florence,  16. 
origin  of.  17,  and  note, 
popular  rising  against  the,  324. 
'successes  of  the,  17,  19,  24. 
victories  of  the,  19,  24. 
Ghiberti,   Lorenzo,  biographv,   357- 
360. 
Baptistery,  307-308,  310. 
niche  for  statue  of  S.  Matthew, 
S;33  and  note, 
statue  of  S.  Stephen,  334. 
statues  and  stained  glass  at  S. 
Croce,  313. 
Ghini.  Luke,  botanist,  90. 
Ghirlandajo.   Domenico,  biography 
of.  447-448. 
frescoes   at   S.   Maria   Novella, 

343. 
Ridolfo,   paintings    in    Palazzo 
Vecchio,  300. 


INDEX. 


467 


Ghirlandajo,  predella  in  the  Bigallo, 
802. 

Gianfigliazzi,  Simona,  252. 

Giaiio  della  Bella  institutes  "Ordi- 
nances of  Justice,"  22. 

Giorgio,  library  founded  in  Monas- 
tery of  S,,  ot). 

Giottino,    Tommaso     Stefimo,   sur- 
named  il,  biography  of,  427- 
42y. 
Campanile,  304. 
Iresco  in  the  Bargello,  r>26. 
Giotto,  biography  of,  422-425. 
Campanile,  :;04. 
frescues  ni  Bargello.  326. 
S.  Maria  de  Fiore,  304. 
portrait  of  Dante,  140. 
tomb,  oOf.. 
Giovanni,    criminals   pardoned  on 
fe.stival  ofS.,  ]4r). 
tumult  on  eve  of  S.,  23. 
Giovannozzi,  Luigi,  321. 
Giovio,     Paolo,    slanders   Politian, 

2:«. 
Giugni,  tomb  of  Bernardo,  384. 
Golden   Fleece,  Cosimo  1.,  leceives 

order  of  the.  91. 
Gonfalouiere,  otlice  of,  21,  23. 

Salvestro  de'  Medici  made,  25. 
Pietro  Soderini  made,  73. 
Gonza^ra,  Captain  of  Imperial  Army, 
80. 
Eleanora,  114. 
Government,    Guelphs    establish  a 
new  form  of.  18. 
change  in  form  of,  21. 
Governo  della  Famiglia.  il,  182. 
Gozzoli  Benozzo,  biography  of,  440- 
411. 
frescoes  in  Riccardi  Palace,  368. 
Granacci,  Francesco,  biography  of, 

448-449. 
Grand  Duke,  title  first  borne  by  Cos- 
imo I.,  91. 
Grandi,  the,  24. 
Grazie,  Pontc  alle,  312. 
Greece,  influence  upon  Italy,  125. 
Greek  art  in  Italy,  268. 

chair  of,  founded  in  Florence, 

132. 
influence  on  Etruscan  art,  271. 
language  used  in  Rome,  129 
settlements  in  Sicily,  273. 
Gregory,  see  Pope. 
Grossi,  Niceolo,  36G. 
Guard,    Cosimo   I.   establishes   the 

Swiss.  338. 
Guelphs,  defeat  at  Montaperti,  19. 
name  first  used  in  Florence,  16. 
its  origin,  17.  and  note, 
new  form  of  government  estab- 
lished by,  18. 
victory  at  (^ampaldino,  21. 
Guicciardini,  Francesco,  biography 
of,  251-257. 


Guicciardini,  Francesco,  his  descrip- 
tion of  Florence  in  1490,  54. 

Lodovico,  257. 

Piero,  252. 
Guilds,  the  Florentine,  .3.33. 

they  select  Priori  delle  Arti, 
21. 

of  the  Calimali.  money-changers 
and  woollen-cloth  iiierchants, 
21. 

Hadrian,  arts  encouraged  by,  278. 
Hapsburgs,  Tuscany  ruled"  by  Lor- 
raine branch  of  the,  119. 
Ilawkwood,   portrait  of  Sir   John, 

433. 
Heidelberg  castle,  John  XXIII.  con- 
fined in,  30. 
Hemaphrodite,  of  the  Ufflzi,  110. 
Henry  I\^  marries  Marie  de  Medici, 
94. 
sends    representatives   to   Flor- 
ence. 15. 
VII.,  canzone  by  Dante  on  death 

of,  146. 
the  death  of,  23. 
VIII.,  tomb  of,  389. 
Hercules  and  Nessus,  Giovanni  da 

Bologna,  340. 
Hildebrand,  see  Pope  Gregory  VII. 
Historv  of   Florence,  by  L.  Bruni, 
183,  316. 
by  Macchiavelli,250. 
by  Poggio,186. 
by  Giovanni  Villani,  150. 
of  Italy,  by  Guicciardini,  256. 
Honorius.'see'Pope. 
Hospital,  the   Foundling  (degli  In- 

nocenti),  199.  208,  316. 
Hubert  of  Lucca,  first  Capitano  del 

Popolo,  324. 
Huguenots  not  allowed  to  settle  near 

Pisa, 116. 
Humanists,  the,  40-41. 

Iconology,  281 

Ilaria,  wife  ot  Paolo  Guinigi,  her 

tomb,  356. 
Iliad,  translated  by  Boccaccio.  43. 
Imperial  succession,  interregnum  ia 

the,  20, 
Impiccati,    Andrea   degli    (.\ndrea 
Castagno),  70. 
biography  of,  439-440. 
Imprese  of  the   Medici,  altered  by 

Ferdinand  I.,  H>3. 
Infantrv,  Macchiavelli's  opinion  of, 

247. 
Innocent,  see  Pope. 
Inquisition,  regulations  establishing 
the,  322. 
sittings  of  the.  321. 
summons  of  Galileo  before  the, 
107,  258,  259. 
Inundations,  311,  312,  414. 


468 


INDEX. 


Italian  language,  formation  of  the, 
134,  138. 

preferred  by  Boccaccio,  164. 

used  by  Dante.  14i». 
Italy  Guicciardini's  History  of,  256. 

Jerome,  Greek  classics  and  S.,  129. 

Jerusalem,  asylum  established  by 
Cosimo  the  Elder  in,  36. 

Jewels  of  the  Holy  See,  and  B.  Cel- 
lini, 403. 

Julius,  see  Pope. 

Joan,  Queen  1('3. 

John  II.  of  Portugal,  54. 

^ohn  S.,  sec  S.  Giovanni. 

Jubinal  Collection,  Medician  tools 
in  the,  88. 

Julian.  Greek  written  by  the  Em- 
peror, 129. 

Justice,  the  statue  of,  88. 

Lami,  Giovanni,  320. 

Landino,  Cristofero,  45,  46,  211. 

Lando,  Michele  di,  25. 

Eanzi,  tomb  of  Luigi,  315. 

Lapo,    Ponte  alia  Carraja  built  by 

one,  312. 
Larga,  Medici  Palace  in  the  Via,  36. 
Lateran.  abbey  built  by  C.  de'  Me- 
dici for  canons  of  the,  35. 
monuments  of  S.  John.  8. 
Latin  language,   influeuce  of  the, 

127. 
Latini,  Dante   studies   under  Bru- 
netto,  143. 
portrait  in  Bargello  of.  326. 
Latino.  Card.,  acts  as  Papal  Legate, 
20. 
replaces  the  Anziani,  21. 
Laura,  162. 

Laurentiana,  see  Library. 
Legends  connected  with  Or  S.  Mi- 
chele, 337. 
Leo,  see  Pope. 

of  Isaura,  and  image  worship, 
281. 
Leopardi.  Alessandro,  8,  373. 
Leopold,  decree  concerning  burials, 

of  Duke,  167. 
Leori,  Piero,  a  celebrated  doctor,  59. 
Lettere  Innanzi  il  Principato,  29. 
Library,  the  Laurentian,  43,  53,  90, 
232. 
of  Niccolo  Niccoli,  43. 
Libraries    founded  by  Cosimo    the 

Elder.  35.  36. 
Lihro  d'Oro  of  Venice,  96. 
Libro  di  Ragione  of  the  Medici,  36. 
Lily  of  Florence,  the,  12  and  note, 

303. 
Lions,  marble,  in  Piazza  Signoria, 

310. 
Lippi.  Filippo.  biography  of,  437-439. 
Filippino.  41-1. 
frescoes  in  S.  Maria  Novella,  343. 


Litta,  genealogies  of  Italian  families 

by.  97. 
Loggia,  del  Bigallo,  301-302. 

del  Lanzi.  337-341, 
Lombardi,  Pietro,  148. 
Lorenzetto,  Lorenzo  del  Campanaro, 

399. 
Lorenzini.  Lorenzo,  impri.soned  by 

Cosimo  III.,  116. 
Lorenzo,  basilica  of  S.,  28.  35. 190. 
burial  of  Bianca  Capello  at,  98. 
Medici  chapel,  100. 
tomb  of  Cosimo  the  Elder.  41. 
of  Piero  de'  Medici.  44. 
Lorenzo.  Battista,  bust  of  Michael 

Angelo,  314. 
Lorraine  branch  of  the  Hapsburgs, 

rule  Tuscany,  119. 
Lorraine.  Christine  of,  co-regent  of 

Florence.  105. 
Lothair.  schools  founded  by.  126. 
Louis  IX  ,  portrait  at  Ara  Coeli,  429. 
Louis  XL,  54. 

Louis  XIII.  and  Alexander  VII.. 107. 
Louvre.  Alberti's  portrait  in  the,  211. 
Loiseleur.  M.  on  Galileo.  263. 
Lucca,  plot  to  introduce  armed  force 
from ,  23. 
tomb  of  wife  of  Paolo  Guinigi 

at,  356. 
work  of  Niccolo  Pisano  at.  349. 
Luini,  portrait  of  Pico  della  Miran- 

dolaby,  140. 
Luna,  Fiancesco  della,  346. 

Macchiavelli,  Bernardo.  245. 
Macchiavelli.   Niccolo.  hi-  account 
of  Glov.  de'  Medici.  28. 

of  death  of  Cosimo  the  Elder, 
39. 

of  imprisonment  of  Cosimo,  33. 

of  the  Pazzi  conspiracy,  62. 

of  the  plague.  24. 

of  the  origin  of  Florence,  11. 

of  the  Alberti.  210. 

his  biography,  245-251. 

tomb  of,  31-^. 
Madonna  di  Cimabue,  343. 

di  Niccolo  Pisano,  3)9. 

del  Sacco,  A.  del  Sarto.  346. 

di  Ugolino  da  Siena.  328-329,  330, 
3.32  and  note 
Maadalen,  Donatello's  statue  of  the, 

310. 
Maiano.  Benedetto  da,  biography  of, 
378-383 

doorway  by.  300. 

pulpit  at  s!  Croce.  315. 

tomb  of  Giotto.  306. 

of  Filippo  Strozzi,  343. 
Maiani,  the,  37s. 
Makart,  the  painter.  P6. 
Malatesta,  treason  of  Baglione.  78.  80. 
Malatestas.  Temple  of  the,  202,  208. 
Malvolt',Federico,33. 


INDEX. 


469 


Mandrapola,  comedy  by  ^farchia- 

velli,  '2:y(). 
Manetti.  Gianozzi,  asked  to  aid  Mar- 
suppini.  18i». 
delivers  Bruni's  funeral  oration, 
184. 
Manfred,  the  death  of,  19. 
Mantegna,  Andrea,  tomb  in  Mantua, 

209. 
Mariti,  Giovanni,  Hist,  of  Facardino, 

101. 
Marco,  church  and  convent  of  S., 
J>),  233. 
attack  of  the  Arrabiati,  233,  4-16. 
frescoes,  4-14. 
MSS.   presented,  by  Cosimo  de' 

Medici  to,  41. 
Savonarola  at,  220. 
tomb  of   Mirandola  and  Beni- 
vieni  at,  235. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  column  of,  279. 
equestrian  statue  of,  278. 
writes  his  Maximus  in  Greek,  129. 
Maria  del  Fiore,  S.,  19C),  286,  30:3-307. 
Ghiberti  and  the  dome,  197,  358. 
old  choir,  70. 
Porta  dei  Servi,  356. 
statues  by  A.  Pi'^ano,  353. 
tomb  of  Brunelleschi,  200. 
Maria  Novella,  S.,  341-344. 
farade.  208. 
frescoes, 153. 
by  Bernardi  Clone,  327. 
Lorenzo  di  Credi  at,  231. 
Maria  sopra  Miuerva,  S.,  Galileo's 

trial,  262,  264. 
Maria  della  Vittoria,  S.,  351. 
Marsuppini,     Carlo,   biography   of, 
187-190. 
epitaph  on  Brunelleschi,  200. 
tomb,  188,  318,  369. 
Jfarsuppini,  Gregory,  188. 
Martelli,  Cammilla,  92. 
Martinella.  the,  81. 
Martino,  Fortress  of  San,  87. 
Maximilian,  Macchiavelli  sent  to, 

248. 
Mayday,  popular  disturbance  on,  23. 
Marzooco,  296,  and  note. 
Masolino  da  Panicale,  biography  of, 

434-435. 
Masaccio,  biography  of,  435-436. 

influence  on  Filippo  Lippi,  438. 
Matilda,  history  of  the  Countess,  14. 
tomb  of  mother  of  Countess,  349. 
Mebius,  Jacobus,  invention  of  adopt- 
ed by  Galileo,  2G0. 
Medici,  ability,  29. 
account  books,  36. 
accused  of  corruption,  37. 
age  of  the,  38. 
banishment,  33. 
chapel  at  S.  Lorenzo,  100,  101, 

395-396. 
chapel  at  S.  Miniato,  2S9-290. 


Medici,  collections  scattered,  72. 
counting-houses,  37. 
family  becomes  extinct,  119. 
influence  in  the  17th  cent.,  106. 
and  John  XXIII.,  31. 
and  Macchiavelli,  249. 
origin  of  the,  27. 
palace,  199. 
and  Politian,238. 
political  influence,  32. 
portraits  in  Riccardi  Palace, 368, 

440-441. 
and  the  Renaissance,  38. 
residences,  36. 
return  of  the,  74,  81,  253. 
stanze    written    for  Giuliano's 

tournament,  236. 
stars,  named  by  Galileo.  105,  261. 
statue  of  Cosimo  I.,  102,  295. 

of  Ferdinand  de'.  416. 
statues  by  Giov.  da  Bologna  and 

Tacca,  101. 
tombs  by  Michael   Angelo,    77, 

396-397. 
triumphal  displavs  under  the, 

46. 
younger  branch  of  the,  39,  82. 
Medici,  Anna  Maria  Louisa  de',  113, 

118. 
Medici,  Alexander  de',  77,  79,  80. 
biography  of,  80-82. 
murder  of,  86. 
Medici,  Buonagiunta  de'.  27. 
Medici,    Cardinal    de',   brother   of 

Cosimo  111.,  114. 
Medici,    Cardinal    de',   brother   of 

Francesco  I.,  97. 
Medici,  Carlo  de',  42. 
Medici,  Catherine  de",  76, 106. 
Medici.    Cosimo    the    Elder,  called 
Father  of  his  Country,  4. 
biography  of,  29-41. 
elegv  bv  Pulci  on  death  of,  215. 
and  Ficino.  211,212,213. 
and  Pandolfini.  182. 
portrait  in  S.  Marco,  233. 
recalls  the  Alberti,  205. 
Medici,  Cosimo  I.  de',  82. 
biography  of.  85-93. 
and  Baccio  Bandinelli,  407^08. 
and  Benvenuto  Cellini,  405. 
equestrian  statue  of,  102,  295. 
and  Guicciardini,  255. 
and  Tribolo,  414. 
Medici,    Cosimo  II.  de',  biography 
of,  io;^i05. 
and  Galileo,  2=i8. 
Medici,   Cosimo  III.  de',  biography 

of,  111-116. 
Medici,  death  of  Eleanora  de',  92. 
Medici.  Ferdinand  I.  de",  biography 
of.  98-103. 
statue  of,  102,  345. 
Medici,  Ferdinand  II.de',  biography 
of,  105-110. 


470 


INDEX. 


Medici,  Ferdinand  II.  de',  and  Ga- 
lileo. 260. 
and  statue  of  Ferdinand  I.,  102, 
345. 
Medici,   Ferdinand  de',  son  of  Cos- 

imo  III.,  113. 
Medici,  Francesco  I.  de',  93-98. 

marriage  of,  297. 
Medici,  Don  Garcia  de',  92. 
Medici,  Giovanni  de',  founder  of  the 
house,  biography  of,  27-29, 
death,  2t). 
wealth,  37. 
Medici,   Gii'vanni  de',  son  of  Cos- 
imo  the  Elder,  42. 
death.  41. 
marriage,  38. 
Medici,  Giovanni  de',  son  of  Lorenzo, 

see  Pope  Leo  X. 
Medici,  Cardinal  Giovanni  de',  92. 
Medici,  Giuliano  de',  son  of  Piero,  44. 
biography  of,  61-70. 
medallion  of,  307. 
Medici,  Giuliano,  son  of  Lorenzo  de', 

56,  74.  75. 
Medici,  Giulio.  son  of  Giuliano  de', 

see  Pope  Clement  VII. 
Medici,    Cardinal    Hippolytus   de', 

biography  of,  77-80. 
Medici,    John  of   the  Black  Band, 

biography  of,  83-85. 
Medici,  John  Gaston,  114. 

biography  of,  116-119. 
Medici,   Cardinal  Leopold  de',  108, 
109,  110,114. 
and  Galileo,  260. 
Medici,  Lorenzo  de',  son  of  Giovanni, 

38,  39,  82. 
Medici,  Lorenzo  il  Magnifico,  41,  42. 
biography  f)f,  44-6u. 
and  Michael  Angelo,  390. 
and  Savonarola,  221. 
sonnet  oJi  death  of  Simonetta, 

443. 
sons  of.  71. 
Medici,   Lorenzo  de',  Duke  of  Ur- 
bino,  74,  254. 
biography  of,  75-77. 
Medici,  Lorenzino  de",  82,  86,  380. 
Medici,  Maria  de',  94,  93,  106. 
Medici,  Piero  de',  son  of  Cosimo  the 
Elder,  biography  of,  41-44. 
and  Ficino.  213. 
marriage,  38. 
Medici,  Piero  Francesco  de',  38. 
Medici,  Pietro,  son  of  Lorenzo  de', 
56. 
biography  of,  71-73. 
and  Michael  Angelo,  391. 
and  Politian,  241. 
Medici,  Salvestro  de',  Gonfaloniere, 

25. 
Medici,  Virginia  de',  92. 
Medician.  archives,  31. 
dynasty,  34. 


Mehus,  Abbe,  on  death  of  Politian, 

240. 
Melliui,  Pietro,  gives  pulpit   to  S. 

Croce,  315. 
Memmi,  frescoes  in  S.  Maria  Novella, 

344. 
Memoirs,  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  405. 

of  Bonaccorso  Pilti,  178. 
Mencken,  biography  of  Politian  bv, 

240. 
Mercati.  Michael,  and  Ficino,  214. 
Mercenary     troops    suppressed    by 

Macchiavelli,  247. 
Merchants,    reputation    of  Floren- 
tine, 20. 
Merula.  Politian's  controversy  with 

Giorgio,  239. 
Michele,  Or  S  ,  328-337,  426. 
Micheli,  P.  A.,  the  botanist,  115, 

his  tomb,  317. 
Michelino,    Domenico,    portrait  of 

Dante.  3'J6. 
Michelozzo  Michelozzi.  297. 
biography  of,  365-368. 
chapel  of  S.  Minia  o,  289,  290, 
statue  of  S.  Matthew,  333. 
tomb  of  John  XXIII. ,  30. 
Misericordia,  oratory  of  the,  301. 
Minga,  Andrea  del,  458. 
Milan,  Duomo,  286. 
Miniato.  S.,  basilica  of,  287-91. 

Medici  chapel,  36. 
Mirandola,  Giov.  Francesco,  241. 
Mirandola,  Pico  della,  charities  of, 
2;>5. 
biography  of,  241-244. 
at  death-bed  of  Lorenzo  de'  Me- 
dici, 60. 
friendship   with    J.    Benivieni, 

2a5. 
with  Pol{tan,237. 
with  Savonarola.  219,  221,  229. 
portrait  by  Luini,  140. 
Miscellanete,  "the.  237. 
Missions  encouraged  by  Ferdinand 

I.,  99. 
Montaperti,  battle  of,  19. 
Montecatini,  battle  of,  24. 
Montelupo,   Baccio  da,  statue  of  S. 
John.  387. 
Pvaffaello  Sinibaldi  da,  399. 
Montemurlo,  battle  of.  380. 
Montt'varchi,   defeat  of  the  Ghibel- 

lines  at.  17. 
Montniartre,  Convent  of.  113. 
Montorsoli,  Fra  Giovanni  Angiolo, 

40:M01. 
Monuments,  S.  John  Lateran,  8. 
Vatican,  8. 
Venice.  8. 
Morgante,  by  Luigi  Pulci,  215. 
Morghen,  tomb  of  Pvaphael.  321. 
Moro,  Ludovico  il,  and  L,  da  Vinci, 

450. 
Mosaics,  in  the  Baptistery,  309,  420. 


INDEX 


471 


Mosaics  of  San  Vitale,  13'). 

of  tomb  of  Galla  Placidia,  135. 
Mosaic  workers,  420. 
Mosca.  Simone,  400. 
Moschino,  il,  400. 
Mozzi,    Episcopal    residence   at    S. 

Miniato  of  Andrea  de,  "JSH. 
Mugellu.conventof  Bosco  a  Pratiat, 

Mussulman  invasion,  the,  131-132. 

Naldini,  Battista,  314. 

Nantes,  revocation  of  Edict  of.  110. 

Naples,  Robert  of,  proclaimed  King 

of  Italy, 145. 
Naxos.  Greek  .'settlement  of,  272. 
Nelli,  Bartolomea  di  Stefano,  245. 
Nelson,  tomb  of  Lord,  389. 
Nemours,  Duchy  of,  75. 
Neri  Abati.  32S. 

and  Bianchi,22. 
Neroni  Diotisalvi,  42,  45. 
Netherlands,  History  of  the,  by  L. 

Guicciardini.  257. 
Neuberg,  daughter  of  Philip  of,  114. 
Nicholas,  see  Pope. 
Niccolo  Niccoli,  43,  44.  133. 
Nigretti,  Matteo,  architect,  100. 
Nino.  Ugolinodi,  .352. 
Nobili,  tomb  of  Leoj)oldo,  317. 
Nobles  of  the  Contado,  15. 
Nolza,  Francesco  Maria,  79. 
Norman  influence  in  Italy,  137. 
Novello,  Guido.  147. 
Noviziato  chapel  at  S.  Croce.  36. 
Numa  Pompilius,  the  sacred  shield, 

13  note,  275. 

Obesi,  2fi9. 

Obelisks  in  Piazza  of  S.  Maria  No- 
vella, 342. 
Obizzi,  tomb  of  Ludovico  degli,  3fi0. 
Odyssey,  translated  by  Boccaccio,  43. 
Opera  del  Duomo,  327,  354. 

Giovanni  Dell,  314. 

name  first  used.  264. 

Rinuccini  and  the,  264. 
Opus  Mini,  in  S.  Maria  in  Trastevere, 

384. 
Orange,  Prince  of,  death,  402. 

at  siege  of  Florence,  78. 
Orator  of  the  Uftizi,  the,  269. 
Orcagna,  Andrea.  354-355.  433. 

the  Bigallo,  301,  and  note.  ■ 

biography  of,  326-332. 

the  Loggia,  337. 

Orvielo  Duomo,  337. 
Ordinances  of  Justice,  the,  22. 
Organ-loft  bas-reliefs,  by  Donatello, 
362. 

by  Luca  della  Robbia,  375. 
Orleans,  assassination  of  the  Duke 
of,  ISO. 

Louise  Marguerite  d',  113. 
Or  S.  Michele,  328-337,  358. 


Orsini,  Alfonsino,  75. 
Clarice,  56. 

wax  figures  of  the  Medici  bv, 
70. 
Otranto,  bombarded   by  the  Turks, 

102. 
Ottobuoni,  Aldobrandino,  3^6. 
Urvieto,  tomb  of  Cardinal  William 
de  Braye,  293. 

Palatine,     William     Elector      and 

Count,  113. 
Palazzo,  Medici,  72, 199. 
Pandolfini,  367. 
Pitti,  89,  200,410. 
collection,  115,  417. 
meetings  of  Cimento  Academy, 

109. 
portraits  of  Bianca  Capello  in 

the,  98. 
site  of  the.  180. 
del  Podesta,  324-.326. 
Ricca-di,  .39,  48.  365,  367-368. 
Strozzi,  299,  366,  379. 
Uberti.  294. 
Uguccione,  295. 
Vecchio,  8,  28f>.  294-301. 
Cosimo  the  Elder  imprisoned  in 
the,  32. 
Palmieri,  Matteo,  164.  209. 

and    Marsuppini's  funeral  ora- 
tion, 189,  190,  320. 
Pancras,  S.,  208. 

Pandolfini.  Agnolo,    biography   of, 
181-182. 
Palace,  367. 
Paolo  extra  Muros.  S.,  293. 
Papacy,  Savonarola  and  the.  222. 
Papal  "interdict,  Florence  under  a, 

23. 
Passavanti,    Jacopo,    biography  of, 
152-1.54. 
facts  about  Macchiavelli,  245. 
Passerini,  text  of  the  "  Provisiuni," 
204. 
Silvio,  regent  of  Florence,  78. 
Pasti  Matteo  da,  medallion  of  Ai- 

berti.  211. 
Paterini.  the,  341. 
Paul,  see  Pope. 
Pawn-shops  first  opened  in  Florence, 

105. 
Pazzi,  chapel  at  S.  Croce,  198,  322- 
324. 
conspiracy,  57,  62-70,  306. 
Politian's  account,  236. 
conspirators,   Bargello  portraits 

of.  42S,  439. 
tomb  of  Francesco.  322. 
Pendulum,  Inveuted  bv  Galileo,  260. 
Peretli.  Monk  Felix.  322. 
Perugia,  Etruscan  remains,  268. 

fountain  of  293,  .351. 
Perseus  of  B.  Celhni,  340-341,  405. 
Peter,  Martyr,  341. 


472 


INDEX. 


Peter,  oratory  of  S.,  287. 
Peter's,  dome  of  S.,  398. 
Petit-Nesle,  Hotel  du,  residence  of 

B.  Cellini,  403. 
Petrarch,  biography  of,  154-163. 

Boccaccio's  grief  at  death  of,  168. 
ignorance  of  Greek,  43. 
tries  to  revive  study  of  Greek, 
117. 
Petronius,  Portal  of  S.   at  Bologna, 

357. 
Philiberta  of  Pavoy,  75. 
Philodoxeos,  by  Alberti,  205. 
Piagnoni,  the,  223. 
Piazza,  della   &S.  Anuunziata,  345- 
&17. 
di  S.  Maria  Novella,  341. 
della  Signoria,  295-296.    . 
Piccolomini,  Silvio,  letter  Irom  So- 

derini  to,  97. 
Pilate,  Leonce,  128. 
Pingues  Etrusci,  269. 
Pisa,  ancient  sarcophagi,  135,  282. 
Duomo,  286. 
frescoes  in  Campo  Santo,  327-328, 

and  note,  .3'i5. 
gates  of  Duomo.  412. 
Macchiavelli    and    capture    of, 

248. 
pnlnit  in  Baptistery,  349. 
Treaty  of,  107. 
T'Uiversity  of,  87. 
Pisano,  Andrea,   biographv  of,  352- 
354. 
font  in  Baptistery,  310. 
Giovanni  and    Niccolo,  biogra- 
phies of,  348-352. 
Niccolo,  135.  292. 
Baptistery  Gate«,  307. 
the  Bigailo,  301. 

influence  of  ancient  sarcophagi 
on,  283. 
Pistoia,  Baldinetto  da.  attempts  Lo- 
renzo de'  Medici's  life,  58. 
Baptistery  of,  353. 
origin  of  Bianchi  and  Neri  quar- 
rel. 21. 
Pitti,  Bonaccorso,  biography  of,  178- 
180. 
collection,  the,  115,417-418. 
Luca,  180. 

Palace,  see  Palazzo. 
Pius,  see  Pope. 
Plague,  the.  24,  329. 

Boccaccio  and  the,  25. 
visitation    in    the    seventeenth 
century,  106,  337. 
Plato.  Cosimo  the  Elder  and,  40. 
Latin  translations  of,  42. 
revival  of  study  of.  213. 
Platonic  Philosophy,  chair  founded, 

42. 
Platonician  school,  founded  by  Co- 
simo the  Elder,  40. 
Plethon,  Gemistas,  40. 


Poccetti,.347.  4.'9. 
Podesta,  office  of,  18,  and  note, 
title  of,  325. 
Palazzo  del,  324-326. 
Poems  of  A.  Orcagna,  355. 

of  L.  de'  Medici,  46. 
Poggio,   Bracciolini,    biographv  of, 

185-187. 
buried  in  S.  Maria  del    Fiore, 

306. 
Polenta,  the  Lord  of.  147. 
Politian,  Angelo.  account  of  death  of 

L.  de'  Medici,  59-60. 
of  Pazzi  Conspiracy,  62. 
biography  of,  236-2*41. 
biographv  bv  Mencken,  240. 
by  Sarassi,  240. 

epitaph  on  Filippo  Lippi,  439. 
on  Simonetta,  443. 
pronounces     Alberti's     funeral 

oration.  210. 
Pollaiuolo,   Antonio,  biography  of, 

385-387. 
Medallions,  70,  307. 
Simone  (II  Cronaca),  299,  379, 385. 
cornice  of  Strozzi   Palace,  299, 

366. 
Council  Hall,  299. 
Savonarola's  influence  on,  232. 
the.  385. 
Pompeo.  stabbed  by  B.  Cellini,  403. 
I'onte.  Alia  Carraja,  312. 
Alia  Grazie,  312. 
S.  Trinita,  90,  312,  427. 
Vecchio,  310-312,426. 
gallery  over  the,  89. 
Pontormn,  Jacnpo  Carucci,  456-457. 
Ponzio,  Paolo  (Paul  Ponce),  415. 
Pope,  Alexander  VI.   (Borgia)   and 

Savonarola.  222-223. 
Alexander    VII.     (Chigi)     and 

Louis  XIII.,  107. 
Boniface  VIII.  (Caetani),  asked 

to  mediate.  22,  23. 
and  Dante,  144. 
legate     lays     corner-stone     of 

Duomo,  303. 
portrait  by  Giotto,  424-425, 
tomb,  293. 
Clement  IV.  (Foucauld)  bestows 

device  upon  Florence,  13, 14. 
Clement  VI.  (Beaufort)   and  Pe- 
trarch, 158. 
Clement  VII.  (Medici),  62,  69,  77, 

79,  81,  85.  296,  380. 
andB.  Cellini.  402. 
and  Guicciardini,  254,255. 
emplovs  Macchiavelli,  250. 
and  Michael  Angelo,  396. 
imprisoned  in  Castle  Angelo,  78. 
Clement  XIV.   (Ganganelli)   at 

S.  Croce,  322. 
Eugenius  IV.  (Condolmieri),  34, 

18S. 
Gregory  VII.  (Hildebrand),  14. 


INDEX. 


473 


Pope  Gregory  VTTI.  (di  Morra),  tomb 

at  Pisa,  '2x:?. 
Honorius  III.  (Savclli),  293. 
Innocent  IV.  (Fieschi),  struggle 

with  Frederick  II.,  17. 
Innocent  VII.  (Cosniator  de'  Me- 

liorati)  and  L.  Bruni,  18:'.. 
Innocent  VIII.  (Cibo)  and  Pico 

della  Mirandola,  243. 
and  Politian,  23/. 
John  XXIII.  (Baldassare  Cossa), 

183,  SK). 
death.  30. 
deposed.  30. 
and  the  Medici,  31. 
submits  to  Martin  V.,  30. 
tomb,  30,  183,  309. 
Julius  II.  (della  Rovere),  death, 

74. 
and  B.  Cellini,  402. 
and  Florence,  73,  253. 
and  Macchiavelli,  248. 
and    Michael    Angelo,  393,  394, 

395. 
reinstates  the  Medici,  74. 
statue  at  Bologna,  394. 
at  Perugia.  415. 
tomb  of.  393.  396. 
Leo  X.  (Medici),  56.  74,  76,  77,  79, 

254. 
liberates  Macchiavelli.  249. 
and  Michael  Angelo,  395. 
Martin  V.  (Colonna)  and  the  Al- 
bert i,  203. 
and    epitaph  of  John   XXIII., 

30. 
receives   submission    of     John 

XXIII.,  30. 
Nicholas  III.  (Orsini),  asked  to 

mediate,  'JO. 
Nicholas  V.  (Parentucelli)  and 

Alberti.  207. 
embellishes  Rome,  209. 
and  Fra  Angelico,  445. 
Paul    11.    (Barbo),    tomb   in   S. 

Peter's,  384. 
Paul  III.  (Farnese),86. 
Pius  II.    (^Eneas    Sylvius)    and 

Alberti,  207. 
pa.sses  through  Florence  as  sec- 
retary to  Frederick  III.,  18i>. 
Pius  V.    (Ghislieri)  and  Cosimo 

I..  91.  92. 
Sixtus  IV.  (della  Rovere),  62. 
and  Ficino,  214. 
and  the  Pazzi  conspiracy,  64. 
and  Sistine  chapel.  443. 
Sixtus  V.   (Peretti)  at  S.  Croce, 

322. 
and  Card.  Ferdinand  de'  Medici, 

99. 
Urban  V.  (Grimoard)  and  Salu- 

tati,  173. 
Urban    VIII.    (Barberini)    and 

Galileo,  107,  259,  262. 


Popolani,  24. 
Popolo,  gra.sso.  24. 

Minuto,  24. 
Porphyry,  working  on,  88. 
Porta,    Baccio  della  (Fni  Bartolom- 

meo).  446. 
Portigiani,  412. 
Portogallo,  tomb  of  Cardinal  Jaco- 

po  da,  290,  377. 
Portraits,  by  Brrnzino.  93,  457. 

by  Piero   della   Francesco  and 
Pisanella,  430. 
Porttigal,  John  II.  of,  51. 
employs  Politian,  238. 
Pottery,   art   of  enamelling  known 

to  ancients,  374. 
Pozzetti,  bust  of  Lcstini,  314. 
Pozzi,  Francesco.  317. 
Prato.  bas-reliefs  for  Cathedral, 362. 
Pratolino,  constructed  by  Francesco 

I.,  93. 
Primaticcio.  415. 

Priors  (Priori  della  Arli),  council  of, 
31. 
Dante  one  of  the,  144. 
device  of  the,  13. 
elected  by  the  Guilds,  21. 
exile  Biahchi  and  Neri  leaders, 

increased  to  six,  21. 
Princess  Joan.  158. 
Principe,  il,  by  Macchiavelli,  251. 
Painting  becomes  general  in  Flor- 
ence. 87. 
Proconsolo,    A.    Rossellini,    called 

Del,  377. 
Propositions,  the  nine  hundred  of 

Pico  della  Mirandola,  213. 
Prosperity,  periods  of,  18,  19,  20. 
Provision!,  the,  204. 
Ptolemvs,  destruction  of  the  library 

of  the,  131. 
Pulci,   Antonia.  wife  of  Bernardo, 
her  worlds,  216. 
Bernardo,  biography  of,  215-216. 
Luca,  216. 
Luigi,  215-216. 
Pulpit,  in  S.  Croce,  315,  382. 
in  Pisa  Baptistery,  349. 
in  Siena  Cathedral,  350. 

Querela,  Jacopo  della,  biography  of, 
355-357. 

Raddi,  tomb  of  the  botanist,  321. 
Raphael.  418. 

introduces     Savonarola     in     a 

fresco,  228. 
letters  from  Michael  Angelo  to, 
455. 
Ravenna,  Dante  at,  147. 
his  tomb.  148. 
Exarchate  of,  its  influence  on 

Tuscany,  134. 
Greek  literature  at,  130. 


474 


INDEX. 


Ravenna,  viotory  of,  '253. 
Kaymond  de  Cordova,  takes  Prate 

by  assault,  74. 
Redi,  letter  from  Galileo  to,  260. 
"  Reforms,"  designed  by  Papal  Le- 
gate, 23. 
Renaissance,  the  35. 

brief  sketch  of  the  movement, 

121-138. 
work   on   the,   by   Burckhardt, 
122. 
Reparata.  ch.  of  S.,  303. 

legend  of  S.,  13  note. 
Republic,  attitude  towards  the  great 
powers,  30. 
end  of  the,  6,  3i,  253. 
foundation   of   its   liberty   and 
strength.  18. 
Retablo   of    the    OPA     (Opera   del 

Duomo),  30'J. 
Revolution,  the  Ciompi,  25. 
Ricasoli,  Bishop  of  Florence,  288. 
tomb  of  Bettino,  321. 
tomb  of  G.  B  ,  312. 
Riccardi  Palace,  see  Palazzo. 
Ricci,  the,  25. 

Dante's  monument,  311. 
Rienzi  and  Petrarch,  158. 
Rimini,    Malatesta   temple   at,   202, 

20S. 
Ringhiera,  the,  296. 
Rinuccini,  Filippo  Alamanno,  264. 
Ottavio,  biography  of,  264-265. 
Piero  Francesco,  265. 
Robbia.   brothers  and  nephews  of 

Lucca  della,  374. 
Robbia,  Lucca  della,  Annunciation 
by,  347. 
biography  of,  373-376. 
Pazzi  chapel,  198,  323. 
tomb  of  Card.  Portogallo,  290. 
work  at  Or  S.  Michele,  335. 
Roman  art,  275 

Empire,  seat  transferred.  130. 
Romance,    Boccaccio  the  father  of 

modern,  169. 
Rome,  compared  with  Florence,  10. 
influence  on  Dante,  127. 
influence  of  monuments,  124. 
sacked   by  Constable  de  Bour- 
bon, 78,  255,  402. 
Rosselli,  Cosimo,  441-442. 

and     decorations     of     Sixtine 
chapel,  443. 
Rossellini,  the,  376-378. 
Rossellini.  Bernardo,  207. 
character  of  work,  9. 
tomb  of  L.  Bruni,  184,  185.  189, 

317. 
tomb  of  Card.  Portogallo,  290. 
Rossi,  Adamo,  293. 
Rosso,  458. 
Revere,  della.  see  Pope  Julius  II. 

and  Sixtus  IV.,  Vittoria,  106. 
Rovezzano,  Benedetto,  389. 


Rubaconte,    Messer,   builds     Ponte 

A  lie  Grazie,  312. 
Rucellai  chapel  at  S.  Maria  Novella, 

343. 
Rudolph  of  Hapsburgh,  20, 

Sabine  group  in  the  Loggia,  91,  340, 

411. 
Sacchetti,  Filippo.  177. 

Francesco,  biography  of,  175-177. 
Nicholas,  Gonlaloniere,  177. 
Salvetti,  tomb  of  Joseph,  321. 
yalviati,  Francesco  Rossi,  459. 
Maria  di  Alimanno,  252. 
Maria  di  Jacopo,  85-86. 
Jacopo,  253. 

and  the  Fortezzo  da  Basso,  380. 
Salvador  al  Monte,  291. 
Salutali,    Coluccio,    biography   of, 
172-175. 
tomb  of  Bishop,  175. 
Sansovino,    Andrea,    biography  of, 
387-388. 
baptism  of  Christ,  308,  414. 
Jacopo,  388.  408. 
Santa relli,  Emillo.  321. 
Sarassi,  biography  of  Politian  by, 

240. 
Sarcophagi,  ancient,  importance  in 
art  of  the,  281,  282,283. 
at  Pisa.  135,  349. 
Sarto,    Andrea   del,   biography   of, 
453—455. 
frescoes  in  the  SS.  Annunziata, 
346. 
Savonarola,  Fra    Girolamo,  biogra- 
phy by  Villari,  232. 
•  biographv,  217-234. 
Council  Hall  built  for,  298. 
at  death-bed  of  L.  de'  Medici.  58. 
forms  a  Great  Council,  73. 
influence  on  Fra  Bartolommeo, 

446. 
on  Botticelli,  413. 
portrait  at  San  Marco,  233. 
sent  to  Charles  VIII.,  72. 
Savonarola,  Niccolo,  218. 
Scotino,  il,  234. 
Sculpture,  348-416. 
Scutcheons  on  buildings.  325. 
Serapeum,    sacked  by  Theodosius, 

131. 
Servi,  Mediciau  chapels  in  ch.  of 

the,  36. 
Seti.  statues  bv  Giov.,  338. 
Settignano,  Desiderio  da,  biography 
of,  3(i8-37n. 
character  of  his  work,  9. 
reference  tobv  Giov.  Santi,  318. 
tomb  of  Mansuppini,  188, 189,  318. 
Sforza,  Catherine,  dau.  of  Galeazo, 

83. 
Shrine,  Orcagna's  Gothic.  330-331. 
Sicily  colonized  by  Greeks,  272. 
Siege  of  Florence,  the,  5,  78. 


INDEX. 


475 


Siena,  fountain,  ?,')C>. 

pull)it  in  Cathedral,  350 
treaty  \vith,  17. 
University  of,  87. 
wars  with,  17. 
Siena,  Ugolino  da,  Madonna  of,  328- 

329,  330,  332. 
Signorelli,  Luca,  biography  of,  445- 

446. 
Signoria  and  Martin  V.,  31. 
nucleus  formed  of  the,  21, 
Piazza  (lella,  2'.ir)-2<»6. 
Pignorini,  Miilazzi,  320. 
Simonetta,  La  Bella,  elegy  on  death 
of.  215. 
portrait  of.  215,  443. 
Sinibaldi  da  Motelupo,  Baccio.  387. 
Sixtine  chapel,  deeoration  of  the, 

394-395. 
Sixtus,  see  Pope. 

Soderini,  Pietro,  appointed  Gonfal- 
oniere  for  life,  73. 
flight  of,  74,  249. 
tomb  of,  389. 
Soderini,  Vittorio,  account  of  death 

of  Bianca  Capello,  97. 
Sophocles,    MS.    preserved    by  Pe- 
trarch. 128. 
Spanish  chapel  at  S.  Maria  Novel!a, 

344. 
Specchio  della  Vera  Penitenza,  by 

Passavanti.  152. 
Spence.  Mr.  William,  discovers  Bot- 
ticelli's Pallas.  442. 
Spezeria  of  S.  Maria  Xovella,  344. 
Spinazzi,  tombs  at  S.  Croce.  320. 
Spinelli,    Spiuello,     biography    of, 

432-133. 
Squarcialupi,  Antonio,  tomb  of,  306. 
"Stanze"  of  Politian,  239 
Stephen,  Order  of  S.,  87,  102. 

victory  of  the  Turks  bv  Knights 
of,  3 15. 
Stoldi,  Lorenzo.  415. 
Strabo.  on  Etruscan  and  Egvptian 

art.  270. 
Strozzi,  chapel  in  S.  Maria  Novella, 
343. 
fanali,  3f)6-3r.7. 
Filippo  the  Younger,  380-382. 
the  Elder,  379. 
tomb  of,  313. 
kev,  367. 

Palace,  299,  366,  379. 
Palla,  133.  182. 
Swabia,  influence  on  Italy  of  House 

of,  i;;6. 
Sylla,  cohorts   of,  build   Florence, 
11. 
embellishes  Florence,  12. 

Tabernacle,  at  S.  Paolo  extra  Muros, 

293. 
Tacca,  Pietro,  biography  of,  415-416. 
fountains  by,  345. 


Tarca,  statues  of  the  Medici,  102, 

103. 
Tadda  Cecco  del,  fountain  by,  297. 

statue  of  .Justice,  88. 
Tafi.  Andrea,  310.  420. 
Tagliacozzo,  battle  of,  351. 
Talenti,  Refectory  of  S.  Maria  No- 
vella, 314. 
Tarentum,  Prince  Louis  of,  163. 
Tarquinius  Priscus  and  Temple  of 

Jupiter,  275. 
Tavanti,  tomb  of  Angiolo,  320. 
Taxation,  oppressive  system  of,  26. 
svstem    reformed    by  Giovanni 
de'  Medici.  26.  27. 
Taxes,    lightened   by  John  Gaston, 

118. 
Temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  275. 

of  the  Malatestas,  202,  208. 
Terre  del  Sole.  Fortress  of,  87. 
Tesoro  and  Tesoretto,  by  Brunetto 

Latini,  143. 
Theatre,  Politian  writes  decalogues 

for  the,  240. 
Thiers,  on  Guicciardini's    History, 

256. 
Tiraboschi,  anecdote  about  Ficino, 

214. 
Titian,  portraits  by,  80. 
tomb  of,  315. 

Venus  in  the  Tribune,  110. 
Title,    Roj'al,   obtained   by  Cosimo 

IIL,  111. 
Toledo,  Eleanora  di,  92.  200. 
Tombs  of    Marsuppiui  and  Bruni, 

189. 
Tommaso  in  Mercato  S.,  residence 

of  the  Medici,  36. 
Toriti,  Jacobus,  293. 

Mosaics  of.  420. 
Tornabuoni,  Camilla   Lucrezia,  38, 

44-45,  215. 
Torre,  tomb  of  Gastone  della,  322. 
Torrentino  works  printed  in  Flor- 
ence, 88. 
Torriyiano,  402. 

biography  of,  389-390. 
Torture,  Galileo,  263. 
Macchiavelli,  249. 
Tour,  Madeleine,  Jean  de  la,  76. 
Tower  del  Guarda  morto,  302, 
of  the  Liou,18. 
Vacca,  2M. 
Trajan.  Column  of,  278. 
Trappists,    Monastery    founded    by 

French.  112. 
Treaty,  with  Charles  VIII..  71. 
with  Imperial  Forces,  80. 
with  Siena,  17. 
Trebbio,  36. 
Trial,  instructions  for  Galileo's,  262. 

official  report  of  Galileo's,  261. 
Tribolo,  Niccolo  Bracini,  biography 

of.  413-414. 
Trinita,  church  of  S.,  349. 


476 


INDEX. 


Trinita,  miraculons  crucifixion  in 
church  of,  289. 
Ponte,  S.,  312. 
"Triumphs,"  under  the  Medici,  46- 
52.  91,%,  104. 
illustrated  accounts  of  sixteenth 
century,  48. 
Troubadours,  Italian  literature  in- 
fluenced by.  138. 
Turks,  bombard  towns  on  the  coast, 
102. 
vessels  destroyed  bv  Cosimo  de' 
Medici,  87. 
Tuscan  colonists,  11. 

Communes     become     indepen- 
dent, 20. 
Tuscany  during  minority  of  Ferdi- 
nand IT.,  105. 
Tyrrhenians,  11. 

Ubaldini,  Azzo,    equestrian   statue 

of,  355. 
rberti  family,  the,  15. 

Farinata'degli,  19. 

Palace,  294. 
Ucello,    Paolo,    biography   of,  433- 

434. 
Uffizi,  Gallery,  the,  417-418. 

connected  with  the  Pitti,  89. 

enriched  by  Cosimo  III.,  115. 

by  John  Ga'ston  and  Anna  Maria 
*de'  Medici.  118. 

founded  by  Francesco  I.,  93. 
Ugo,  tomb  of  Count,  384. 
Uguccione,  della  Faggiuola,  24, 146. 

Palace,  295. 
Unity  of  Italy,  the,  10. 
Tniversities  of  Pisa  and  Siena,  87. 
ITrban,  see  Pope. 
Urbino.  Gentile  di',  tutor  of  Lorenzo 

de'  Medici.  45. 
Uzzano,  Niccolo  da,  27. 

Vacca,  la,  295. 

marble  lion  by  Flaminio,  340. 

Tower  della.  294. 
Yadimo,  battle  of,  268. 
Valeriano,    Cardinal,   lays    Duomo 

corner-stone,  303. 
Valois,  portrait  of  Charles  of,  326. 
Valori,  tomb  of  Bartolommeo.  360. 
Vanities,    burning  of  the,  223,  224, 

225. 
Yarchi,  Benedetto,  delivers  Michael 
Angelo's  fut>eral  oration,  398. 

description  of  Hippolytus,  79. 

on  influence  of  the  Medici,  37. 
Vasari,  Giorgio.  455. 

chapels  at  8.  Croce.  314. 

connects  Pitti  and  Ufflzi,  89. 

paintings   iu   Palazzo  Vecchio, 


Yasari,  tomb   of  Michael    Angelo, 

314. 
Yatican.  Monuments  of  the,  8. 
Vaucluse.  154. 
Yecchio.  Palazzo.  8.294-301. 

Ponte,  311-312. 
Yeii,  becomes  subject  to  Rome,  268. 
Veneziano,  Antonio,  431-432. 

Leopoldo,  317. 
Yenice  and  Florence  compared,  10. 

library  founded  bv  Cosimo  de' 
Med"ici,36. 

monuments  of.  8. 
Yenus    de'    Medici,   brought    from 

Rome,  115. 
Yera,  tomb  of,  3.'6. 
Verdiana.  Monastery  of  S.,  35. 
Yerrocchio,  Andrea,  449. 

biography  of,  370-373. 

ball  on  Duomo  cupola.  r06. 

boy  and  dolphin,  44.  297. 

Madonna  on  Bruni's  tomb,  317. 

statue  of  Colleone,  44,  298. 

of  S.  Thomas,  335. 

tomb  of  Piero  de'  Medici,  44. 

wax  models  of  the  ^ledici,  70. 

Messer  Giuliano.  370. 
YienuH,  Council  of,  132. 
Yieri  de'  Cerchi,  at  Campaldino,  21. 

joins  the  Bianchi,  22. 

siammoned  to  Rome,  22. 
Yilanella,  la  Bella,  291. 
Yillani,  Filippo,  152,  note. 

description  of  Boccaccio,  167. 

Giovanni,  biography  of,  150-152. 

Matteo,  152. 
Yillari,    biography   of  Savonarola, 

232 
Yinci.  Leonardo  da,  139. 

biography  of,  449-452. 

angel  in"  Yerrocchio's   picture, 
371. 
Yinci,  Pietro  da,  449. 
Yirgil  and  Dante,  127. 

house  at  Brindisi,  127. 

statue  decorated,  127. 
Yitale,  mosaics  of  S.,  13-5. 
Yolgare  Eloquio,  by  Dante,  145. 
Yolsinii,  capture  of  the,  269. 
Yolterra,  Duomo,  349. 

sack  of,  58. 

Will  of  Boccaccio,  167. 

Wolf  of  the  Capitol,  2' -,9. 

World,  predictions  of  end  of  the, 

282. 
Writers  of  the  fifteenth  century,  48. 

Zamo'iska,  tomb  of  Countess,  321. 
Zenobio,  S.,  304. 

shrine  of  S.,  358,360. 
Zuccone  di  Donatello,  il,  305. 


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